School bus driver Lee Somervell and the bus shelter he helped get built with help from Mitre 10 Hastings and EIT.
School bus driver Lee Somervell and the bus shelter he helped get built with help from Mitre 10 Hastings and EIT.
On a wet week in March, a Hawke’s Bay school bus driver saw his young passengers huddled under a canopy of huddled umbrellas and decided to do something to keep them warm and dry.
Lee Somervell has been a school bus driver with Tranzit for about nine months. He transportspupils from up the Esk Valley to Eskdale School, north of Napier.
“It’s a lovely school,” Somervell said.
“When I drive in, I tell the kids, ‘Here we are at Eskdale School, the best school in Napier’ and they all go ‘No Lee, it’s the best in the universe’.”
Somervell’s bus is known as the “music bus” to his young passengers – he has loaded it up with instruments for daily singalongs of Wheels on the Bus and Mary Had a Little Lamb, among other children’s favourites, and plays games of I Spy with the children.
Father of two of his passengers and Esk Valley farmer Mark Mitchell said the kids love the bus so much that when their parents can collect them from school the kids would still prefer to ride the school bus with Somervell.
“They want to catch the bus because Lee’s awesome,” Mitchell said.
“He gives them a present or a bit of birthday cake on their birthdays and all sorts. He’s a hell of a bloke.”
One wet morning, Somervell saw his young passengers standing in the rain at the end of Mitchell’s driveway when he decided “this is not good enough”.
“It’s pretty cold up that Esk Valley,” Somervell said.
He and Mitchell discussed building a mai mai to keep the kids dry, but Somervell thought he’d “go to the top”.
“So I came to Mitre 10,” he said.
At Mitre 10 Hastings, Somervell met with advertising, events and sponsorship co-ordinator Pip George, who couldn’t help but catch Somervell’s enthusiasm.
“We were like, how can we not get behind this project,” she said.
“We receive a lot of requests for good and gift card, but obviously projects like this one inspire us. It’s more what we do around the DIY and building and it aligns with our values here at the store.”
Pip George and Lee Somervell at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the bus shelter.
George sent an email to EIT’s School of Trades and Technology carpentry tutor Campbell Johnson, better known as CJ, asking if he and his students would be keen to help build the shelter if Mitre 10 provided the materials, to which he replied “absolutely”.
“EIT were crucial to this project,” George said.
“Something about students helping younger students, that full circle really means something.”
Pip George (right), Campbell CJ Johnston (middle), Lee Somervell (right) and passengers on his school bus at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new bus shelter.
Six weeks later, a bright-orange bus shelter was placed at the end of Mitchell’s driveway so his children and their fellow pupils could stay dry during the colder and wetter months.
“It’s a hell of a lot better than my garage at home,” laughed Somervell.
“It can be seen from [State Highway 5] and that’s a great thing because what we need is giving credit to Mitre 10 Hastings.
“But to have this bus shelter now to unite us all is really good and wonderful teamwork.”
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier. He reports on all stories relevant to residents of the region.
