It has been more than a decade since Kyle Alderson won the second annual Oklahoma School Bus Safety Speech Contest, and later the national contest, but it felt like only yesterday when he got married last month. Randy McLerran of National Bus Sales helped make April 21 an extra special day for Alderson and his new bride, Allie, by providing a yellow school bus to transport the wedding party.
McLerran said young Kyle not only presented a “wonderful” speech to NAPT and NASDPTS in 2001 but he also created and performed a puppet show to local elementary students on how to be safe school bus riders. He is now the assistant district attorney for Osage County, Okla.
“What a credit this young man is to his family, community, state and country. He really is a fine example of what’s right about public education,” said McLerran, who is also the former Oklahoma state director of student transportation.
But it was not McLerran’s or Alderson’s idea to use a school bus to chauffeur the wedding party.
“When Allie and I were discussing travel arrangements from our wedding to the reception and after-party, she brought up the idea of using a school bus. She knew my work in school bus safety when I was in high school. Also, a lot of people from Muldrow, my hometown, could not make the drive to Tulsa for the wedding,” Alderson said. “We thought using the Muldrow (Okla.) bus would be a great way to bring a part of Muldrow to the wedding. I loved it.”
And he was not only one who felt that way.
“The wedding guests were really intrigued. Kyle gave a speech at the reception explaining its significance,” McLerran said. “The school bus was responsible for a lot of good things in his life: the speech contest and the scholarship and also getting him to and from school.”
Kyle also expressed appreciation to McLerran for coordinating the school bus transportation from National Bus Sales.
“Everyone thought it was fun and definitely different than any other wedding,” he recalled. “It did mean a lot to win the school bus safety speech contest back in the early 2000s. It played a large part of my high school career. Little did I know that it would continue and play such a large role on the day of my wedding!”
