Back of the Bus:

For Teenager Pupil Transporter's Selflessness Reaches Home

By Ryan Gray | Senior Editor

ORLANDO, Fla. - It is often said pupil transporters are first and foremost in the business for the children.

That was never more evident than during the Transporting Students with Disabilities & Preschoolers in March.

During industry tradeshows a common practice among exhibitors is to offer Easy Way Safety Services is no exception.

The annual disabilities tradeshow, serving a niche within a niche, likely attracts the fewest exhibitors of all the national events. Not for lack of great information but it's a numbers game, plain and simple. So Bob Rubin, vice president of sales for the Cincinnati-based child safety restraint systems manufacturer, seating and wheelchair tie-down manufacturer, was pleasantly surprised when he witnessed one of the most heartwarming yet rare moments we could expect at such a gathering: the beautiful, beaming smile of an ecstatic young girl.

Tradeshows, of course, are ripe with marketing pitches, handshakes and product demonstrations. But as Edupro Group tends to hold the weeklong show in warmer climates - that thinking goes out the window next year when Louisville, Ky., plays host - many attendees bring their families as the show coincides with Spring Break.

Easy Way prepared a slew of gifts to raffle off on March 7. School district special needs transporters lined up as you'd expect they would; after all everyone loves freebies, especially school bus people. Yet one "attendee" seemed more excited than everyone else. Her name is Brittany Coulston, age 13.

She'd never been to Florida and her father, Chip Coulston, decided to treat the family. You see Chip dons many hats for the Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District in upper Michigan. As the transportation coordinator he also supervises the school district's building, grounds and fleet services. He is also the resident wheelchair and occupant restraint expert and is a state CDL and motorcycle examiner.

So while he learned the latest and greatest on collaboration between special needs and transportation departments and received updates on WC-19 compliance, Brittany and her mother, Donna, enjoyed the mid-70 degree weather and the sites of Orlando, especially Disney World and Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. It was a vacation the eighth-grader would surely cherish.

But a man she never knew, a man who lives more than 1,000 miles to the east of her Boyne City, Mich., home, extended a brand of kindness, the variety of which could help shape an impressionable young life.

Back on the tradeshow floor, Easy Way's Rubin noticed Brittany hanging around the company's booth. She was mesmerized by a stuffed dog that was as big as her. She cajoled Dad to purchase several tickets, and for good measure she bought a couple more with her own money to improve her chances.

Finally the time came for Rubin to call the winning ticket. He secretly hoped the number would belong to Brittany. Her diligence was unmatched as, like clockwork, she would return to the Easy Way booth to monitor the stuffed dog's status, despite nearly 80-degree weather, a cloudless blue sky and an inviting hotel pool waiting outside.

Brittany collected all her tickets and held her breath as Rubin read the numbers one by one. Her heart sank.

Maybe Harvey Boatman felt lucky or maybe he's just the gambling type. But Maine's state director of pupil transportation was a winner that day in more ways then one. He held the winning numbers and walked up to claim the prize but noticed the devastated look on Brittany's face. Accounts differ, dependent upon whom you ask - Rubin said she began to shake with tears, but Brittany insists she was simply disappointed - but the teen melted Boatman's heart, and he gave her the dog.

"He was flying home and knew I really wanted it," Brittany said later. "I said, 'Oh man!'"

Perhaps Boatman wondered how he would get the over-sized stuffed animal home. Certainly buying an extra ticket or paying the additional luggage fee was out of the question. But perhaps it was Brittany's priceless face that sealed the deal.

In a script Hollywood couldn't write, Chip Coulston decided to drive all the way to Orlando and allow his family to see the countryside, a once in a lifetime opportunity for most and at least an interactive history lesson for his daughter before high school. Her mother Donna wondered aloud how the family would squeeze the dog into the family truck along with a week's worth of luggage for three.

But certainly Brittany found a way.

And Boatman succeeded in teaching Brittany a lesson of kindness and self-sacrifice she will never, ever forget.