Awesome Sauce: Forest Hills bus driver becomes world champion at School Bus Competition

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
B ninety three Awesome Sauce. Start your day on a
positive note. Awesome Sauce six to ten weekday mornings with
the V ninety three Morning Show always love a local
awesome Sauce. This morning, we give it up for a
local legend who just proved that sometimes the most important
rides in life come with flashing lights and a stop

(00:22):
sign arm. Meet Betty Nelson, a West Michigan school bus
driver who was just crowned world champion at the School
Bus Driver International Safety Competition in Austin, Texas.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
I didn't know that. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Who knew that was the thing?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I know it sounds fun though.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Betty took home first place in the conventional bus category,
beating out the best of the best with a fifty
question written exam and a white knuckle obstacle course that
would literally stress anybody out.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, the bus drivers are some of the bus drivers,
lunch ladies, lunch people, some of the greatest humans in
the entire world. You don't realize that until you're out
of high school or out of school, but some of
the greatest humans in the entire world.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Betty's win was historic, the first for a Michigan driver
in twenty four years.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, represent him, she said.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
When they called her name, jaws dropped, her husband jumped up, cheering.
She started crying, and everyone at the table stunned. Because Betty,
she's not just a great driver, She's a great human.
She retired from driving in twenty twenty three. She came
back when she saw when she saw the national shortage
of bus drivers. Why this one retired and came back.

(01:42):
She said, Well, you might be driving the next president,
the next doctor that cures cancer, and that's why you
gotta keep those babies safe.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Now Betty spends her days driving special need students in
the Forest Hills Public School District, and for her, that
is the real win. She says. The kids are really
why she came back, and the lifelong connections are her
biggest reward. Ten years later, she'll still hear, hey, miss
Betty in the grocery store.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
I love that.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
If we're on the bus right now, I would be
in the back of the bus going Betty, Betty, Betty, bet.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
And let's be honest, everybody remembers their favorite bus driver
from when they were a kid. So today we salute
Betty Nelson for the skills, the heart, and the reminder
that heroes don't always wear capes. Sometimes they drive yellow
school buses.