The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

PRESCOTT - A new bus bag program in the Prescott School District is providing homework help to younger students as well as giving older students the chance to be role models.

Sue DeRuwe, the counselor and athletic director for the Prescott School District, said earlier in the school year bus driver Leslie Beckman came up with the idea of making bags for students on the bus.

Beckman, a Prescott alumna, has been driving buses for the school district for 15 years. She said she has 70 kids on her bus route and about 12 kindergarten through third graders on her bus who are tiny in stature and difficult to see in her mirror. She thought if she came up with an activity bag and paired the little ones with seniors who could keep an eye on them she wouldn't worry so much about their safety and behavior on her bus.

The seniors need community service hours to graduate and so she asked her twelfth grade students first to be bud- dies with the younger kids.

She spoke with teachers to find out what materials would be most helpful and easily got a green light from Principal Jodi Thew to run the program on her bus.

Beckman went to a thrift store and found squares of fabric to make bags for her bus riders and decorated them.

The bags are filled with items, like clipboards, to help make it easy to do homework while the bus is bumping down the highway from Vista Hermosa to Prescott schools. The bus ride can take up to 30 minutes one way. The bags include other goodies too to keep kids busy, like flash cards, worksheets and reading materials.

"I tried to make it so it was fun and educational," Beck- man said.

DeRuwe said this program has quickly become a hit and the older students are taking on the role as mentors and teachers. They are even creat- ing worksheets to keep the little ones busy on bus rides, she said.

In addition to the bags, there is a coloring contest on the bus each Friday and Mon- day is Prize Day. Beckman said she has lots of stuffed animals and other toys left over from her own children and she gives them out to her bus riders.

"It's fun and it keeps them occupied," she said.

And now that fall sports are mostly over and older students are riding the earlier bus home, more of the older students want to be part of this program, she added. The younger kids want to take part because it's fun to hang out with a high school student.

"It's a bus community activity," DeRuwe said. "It's a win-win for everybody."

Beckman said she plans to continue the bus bag program as long as the kids still enjoy it and as long as it keeps them in their seats and busy. She continues to find new activi- ties and worksheets online for free so there are always new materials in the bus bags.

She enjoyed a moment recently when she spotted a first grade student pull flash cards out of the bag and start practicing the skills with a kindergarten student.

"I'll do anything to help a kid," Beckman said.

Superintendent Dr. Bill Jordan is thrilled with the en- thusiasm the students have for Beckman's program.

"Our kids look forward to the time they have on the bus, and everyone wants a bus bag!" he said.