by Don KernsSite & Facilities Manager
We welcome the addition to our fleet of a new-to-us bus. He ("Elijah;" white bus on left) was recently purchased for us by a generous donor. This bus sat in Glen Ellyn, Illinois for a month or so waiting for the title transfer process to be completed. During that time, a family took on the huge project of removing many square feet of decals and lettering from the bus' former identity. They also took on the task of scrubbing the dirt out of the interior of the 2005 Freightliner.
With this welcome upgrade we will be saying goodbye to a faithful friend—the 1985 IHC blue bus (#71). If the seats could only speak! So many wonderful trips have been accomplished with the blue bus—many fun stories with young and old. A company of drivers over the years come to mind too: Doug Shepson, Rob Codding, Mark Patterson, Bill Long, Alan Scales, Avery Davis, David Eyk, Nate Elsen, Mark Bodnar, Ryan McCaffrey, Derek Alden and John Elsen to name a few from the last decade. It just passed 109,000 safe miles! You can ask John Elsen or Dr. Paul Egland what happened when the bus hit 100K.
Back to Elijah (#60) - He took his first trip with passengers on Saturday 7/16. Service team had the privilege of making the maiden voyage en route to Eagle River for a laundry run at Seiferts. Elijah received a special blessing from the Service Teamers who prayed over him and for safe travels for his entire lifetime. The next trip will be today with 2:22 students to work at Camp Daniel which is just north of Green Bay. Advance Camp has a few trips scheduled too. We are off and driving—thanks for sharing the joy with us.
We are thankful for the blessing of having this new bus and for everyone who put time into getting it ready for our use! Our God is good!