Busses for the bus drivers

It was a turnabout for nine school bus drivers last Friday at El Morro Elementary School.

Instead of sitting with their backs to students, the drivers took center stage and faced a crowd of cheering students for Bus Driver Appreciation Day, an annual event at the school.

The shouts of supports were fierce as students made a competition of promoting their favorite driver. Signs exclaiming “thank you!” and “we love you!” were held high.

“Raulie!, Raulie!, Raulie!,” a group chanted for their driver.

“You’re the best, Sergio!” a student in the back shouted.

“They’re protectors of safety and they care about your well-being,” Principal Chris Duddy told the audience.

“You’re sweethearts to all of our children,” PTA President Melissa Cavanaugh said. “Sometimes our kids are like airheads and nerds,” she conceded.

Each driver was given a bag from the PTA containing visors and gift certificates to movie and book stores ? but that was just a sample.

The giving kept going as the kids handed over $20 bills and cards.

Homemade banana bread, muffins, candy, gift certificates, flowers and potted plants were also presented by passengers at morning stops.

Perhaps no one was more appreciative of the drivers than parents.

“He treats the kids on his bus as if they were his own, keeps parents in the know and has a huge fan club of children,” mother Robin Rounaghi said of driver Raul “Raulie” Marquez.

Marquez has been driving in Laguna for nine years and refers to the children as old friends.

“Some of these kids were in strollers when I was driving their siblings,” Marquez said.

Cedric Channel, 19, a freshman at the University of Arizona, returned as an El Morro alumni to say hi to his old driver Marquez, who now takes his younger brother Nick to school.

“Raulie’s the man. We go way back,” Channel said as the two posed for a picture.

The enthusiasm of Marquez’s fan-base did not go unmatched.

Driver Sergeio Villa’s bus was decorated by passengers with a huge banner reading, “We Love You Sergio!”

Other buses had front windows decorated with signs and flowers.

Villa, 50, has been driving kids to El Morro and Thurston Middle School for five years.

“Once you start driving the same route you get to know the kids,” Villa said. “They’re great kids, I love them.”

Special needs driver Cecelia Camarena, who transports children with disabilities, received red roses from one of her riders.

“I love them,” Camarena said. “After 11 years I love the children as if they were my own.”

The driver’s assembly ended appropriately with kids filing out to school buses for rides home.

The cheers kept going with singing and shouting as passengers boarded and headed out to the streets.cpt.05-busdriver-CPhotoInfo131QJQMF20060505iypq3inc(LA)Bus driver Raul ‘Raulie’ Marquez, center, is surrounded by students on El Morro’s Bus Driver Appreciation Day