Bloomington Transit joined the Salvation Army to fill a Bloomington city bus with new donated toys, coats and mittens for children in need. They decorate the bus and drive it to different places in Bloomington, collecting donations.
“Right now, we have over 600 families signed up for need this year and that includes over 1,000 children,” Brenda Underwood said. Underwood is the human resources and marketing ?administrator for Bloomington Transit, and she does the marketing for Stuff-A-Bus.
The Bloomington Stuff-A-Bus event has been going on for 14 years. It started after one of the general managers of Bloomington Transit brought the idea over from another transit company he worked for.
Since the start of Stuff-A-Bus, the program has only grown, Underwood said.
“It’s definitely getting more noticed throughout the community, and we have people in the community come back year after year to volunteer as well as donate,” she said. “Our donations are really growing in popularity. People are really aware of the bus, and they’ll call and ask when it starts and where to donate.”
One of Stuff-A-Bus’ main sponsors is the local WCLS 97.7 Classic Hits radio station. This is the fourth year that WCLS has been involved with Stuff-A-Bus.
David Bruce, the Stuff-A-Bus representative for WCLS, said he was contacted by Underwood, which led to WCLS becoming the “media radio station” for the event.
“We do on-location live broadcasts at several collection locations,” Bruce said. “I think we went to six locations this year and broadcast. We actually kicked off the first day of the Stuff-A-Bus collection at our radio station, which was a great ?experience.”
The live broadcasts from WCLS tell listeners the different bus locations as well as what kinds of donations they accept and what has already been received.
Once the donation period ends, the bus goes to the ?Salvation Army, where it is unloaded with the help of volunteers. WCLS also attends the unloading.
“I really enjoy the morning that we take the items off of the bus,” Bruce said. “It is so neat to see how many giving people there are in this community. And also, to think how excited a child will be on Christmas morning when their special toy is under the tree makes it worth it all.”
All of the donations that are unloaded from the bus are sorted and given to families that signed up through the Salvation Army. All the families live in Monroe County.
“I just think it’s great that the community really pitches in and really helps other members in the community who are needy,” ?Underwood said.
