THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 23, 1995 TAG: 9506220208
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
The crowd ate cake and ice cream, drank punch and socialized in festive fashion, but the reason for the gathering was a loss of sorts. An institution - in the person of bus driver Gerri Gilliland - left Linkhorn Elementary School at the end of the school term. The school tossed a surprise farewell party for her.
Gilliland, 62, drove a bus to the school on Laskin Road for 33 years; the same route through Bay Colony for 27 years. She had a Pacific Avenue route for the first six years.
``I loved every minute of it,'' she said, as current and former riders gathered to say goodbye. ``I'm driving children of some of the students I started taking to school 30 years ago. And some of the older brothers and sisters who are here today.''
Gilliland, whose own two children John and Vanessa also went to Linkhorn, did much more than transport the students, to hear them tell it.
Amy Phillips, 11, a fifth-grader, remembered the time that Gilliland waited for her.
``I was late getting to the bus stop because I had to take my dog back home,'' said Amy.
Gilliland played tapes over the speakers of the bus to make the ride ``cooler,'' said Chase Pittman and Jay Rixey, a pair of 10-year-old rising fifth-graders. Both have older siblings, Cart Rixey and Matt Pittman, who are Gilliland bus alumni.
Cart and several other older students showed up to say goodbye and pose for pictures with Gilliland. One of them, Elana Kilmartin, has a sister, Briana, who will be a sixth-grader next year. For the first time since she began school, Briana will see a new face in the driver's seat come September.
``Mrs. Gilliland was so nice,'' said Briana. ``I'm going to miss her.''
Nancy Kilmartin, mother of Elana and Briana, helped organize the party.
``She used to turn around if we forgot our lunches,'' said 10-year-old Lonnie Clark, a rising fifth-grader.
And then there was the annual trip to Burger King.
``Ms. Gilliland took the whole bus load to Burger King every year prior to winter break,'' said Linkhorn Principal Carroll Monger. ``She paid for lunch for all of the kids out of her own pocket.''
David Pace and Dennis Slavinsky, director and supervisor of transportation for the public schools, attended the farewell and offered their thank-yous and goodbyes.
Several parents voiced appreciation of Gilliland about a serious matter of concern. The bus driver noticed that a suspicious-looking man was following the bus around Bay Colony for some period of time. She alerted parents and children.
``The police couldn't really do anything, because he wasn't breaking the law, but he stopped following us after a while,'' said Gilliland.
Gilliland plans to pursue her hobby of canning and travel some, but she will continue to work part time for the school system's transportation division.
At her party, she accepted the gifts, the hugs and the goodbyes and talked about 33 years of steadfast service.
``The minute their little feet hit the door of that bus, they were my kids,'' she said. ``They were the school's responsibility during the school day, but they were mine coming and going.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
Bus driver Gerri Gilliland admires the cake she was given at her
retirement ceremony at Linkhorn Elementary.
by CNB