SAN FRANCISCO — Zūm, the tech-enabled student transportation provider, announced today a successful community event honoring school bus drivers serving the San Francisco Unified School District.
The celebration was held on Friday, Nov. 18 to recognize bus drivers with 40-50 years of continued service with the ““Exceptional Community Award,” the recipient of the inaugural “Paul Stein Award,” and the “Safety Award.” In total, 11 drivers were recognized at the Thanksgiving community gathering that included more than 200 bus drivers, city representatives, community members, and Zum employees.
“It is the time of year when we give back and give thanks,” said Ritu Narayan, CEO of Zūm. “Bus drivers are the unsung heroes in our communities. It is great to be able to take the time to recognize the very people who are the heart of what we do at Zūm. It is a privilege to get to work with each and every one of our drivers to help get children to school safely and on time.”
Photo includes (from left to right): Susan Moorehead Head of Training and Safety for Zum, Ritu Narayan founder and CEO of Zum, and award recipient Shirely Canyon at 11/18 event. More photos can be found here.
Awards and recipients included:
- The inaugural “Paul Stein Award” was given to one exemplary driver, Shirley Canyon, who goes above and beyond to get kids to and from school safely each day just like Paul Stein, a retired and beloved bus driver, did for 50-plus years.
- The “Exceptional Community Award” was given to 7 drivers who have dedicated 40-50 years of service to the San Francisco community:
- Dale Sutton – 52 years service
- Shirley Canyon – 51 years service
- Jimai Griffin – 47 years service
- Gene Guzman – 44 years service
- Norman Gatewood – 42 years service
- Hugh Wesley – 42 years service
- John Leon-Guerroro – tenured mechanic
- The “Safety Award” was given to 4 drivers based on the driver’s exceptional safety performance:
Jose Sandoval
Shirley Canyon
Melody Ortega
Shane Hoff
“It is an honor to serve my community each and every day,” said Shirley Canyon, recipient of the Paul Stein Award, Exceptional Community Award for 51 years of service and Exceptional Safety Award. “I love being a positive start to the day for the kids I drive to school, and ushering them home safely at the end of the day. It has been my life’s purpose for decades, and I would not have it any other way”
Zūm is transforming school transportation, the largest mass transit system in the U.S., totaling $28 billion annually. By combining a proprietary, end to end cloud-based tech platform with driver and parent apps as well as school dashboards and a sustainable fleet of vehicles, Zūm optimizes school routes. Zūm also tracks children’s safe on-time arrival and departure from school, and reduces the diesel pollution impacting our children, communities and environment.
For more information, visit: www.ridezum.com.
About Zūm
Zūm has reimagined student transportation, the nation’s largest mass transit system. Our robust operations and integrated end-to-end cloud-based platform provides a modern student transportation service for school districts purpose-built around the needs of kids and the expectations of their families. Zūm provides one seamless, real-time interface for parents, drivers, schools, districts, administrators and operators to transport children safely and with increased visibility and personalized care. Always investing in the wellbeing of the communities, Zum is also the only carbon neutral student transportation provider in the nation with plans to go Net Zero with EV transition. Learn more at www.ridezum.com.
