SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — “On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me: three dead skunks, two rotten eggs and a chicken in a crab apple tree!”
If Leo Stewart’s voice come to mind just now, the reader probably travelled to school on bus 536.
Stewart was like that. He enjoyed a good laugh. He understood early, in what turned out to be 24-year career behind the wheel of a school bus, that children respond to someone who is equal parts silly and respectful.
He knew the name and birthday of every child on his route and he ran a tight ship in terms of appropriate behavior. He also wore his trademark neon pink hat, liberally gave out candy for good behavior and armed his passengers with water guns on the last day of school.
For thousands of children, he will always be the fun-loving bus driver they think about when they reflect on their time in school.
For that reason and many more, Stewart was posthumously awarded the P.E.I. Home and School Federation School Bus Driver of the Year Award.
Stewart, 64 of Summerside, died on April 21.
His wife, Mary Stewart, and children Tammy and Robert Stewart accepted the award on his behalf in a small event at Elm Street Elementary, Thursday, Nov. 5. Kids from Stewart’s bus were on hand, as well his colleagues at Elm Street and several of his fellow drivers.
“It was a beautiful little ceremony,” said Mary.
Her husband loved his job, she said, and for him to get that recognition, especially knowing that some of the children on his route contributed to it, was special.
“He wanted to make (the kids) all feel special. That’s what kept him going, the love he got from them. That just made his day.”
Sharon Howatt, a teacher at Elm Street School and long-time colleague of Stewart’s, co-nominated him for the award with fellow Home and School member Terri-Lynn Gallant.
After everything Stewart did for the children, he deserved the recognition, said Howatt.
“When Leo died, it kind of hit me – everything he did for the kids, how they just loved him and how they were really going to miss him,” she said.
“He was like a big kid himself and the kids just gravitated to him.”
Leo Stewart’s take on “12 Days of Christmas,” which he sang every year to the children on his school bus route.
“On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 12 hugs and kisses, 11 turkey gizzards, 10 thrown pies, nine cranky women, eight sour candies, seven bad kids, six flat tires, five no good potatoes, four stinkin’ socks, three dead skunks, two rotten eggs and a chicken in a crab apple tree!”
In addition to his work as a school bus driver, Stewart was also a long-time volunteer with the Summerside Fire Department, an ice-maker for the Silver Fox Entertainment Complex and an avid and active member of the P.E.I. curling community.
He was laid to rest by his family in the People’s Protestant Cemetery earlier this year. His gravestone is adorned with a number of things he loved in life, including a little school bus with his number, 536, proudly engraved on its side.