Today we’d like to highlight the Transportation Department and a number of its employees who ensure the safety of our staff, clients, and the community at large.

Working with PEACE, Inc. for seven years now, Lori Lovine serves as the Head Start Driver Support Specialist. In her role, Lori opens the Transportation Building every morning for staff and pursues a number of activities to ensure the safety of staff and children. Each day, Lori dispatches the Head Start Buses, creates passenger checklists for drivers and assists them with their bus routes, as well as produces daily vehicle inspection reports, seating charts, bus stop safety reviews, and safety drills. Lori also relays important information from parents to both bus drivers and the respective Head Start sites. Lori enjoys working at the agency because her coworkers are easy to get along with. Even though she works part-time, she is a vital piece of the department and ensuring that both communication and safety are prioritized.

Next, Barbara Titus is a Head Start driver for the James Street Head Start location and has been a part of the agency for 3 years. In her position, Barbara transports children and bus monitors to her assisted Head Start location. She has been commended for always keeping safety a priority and being flexible with driving assignments, especially due to the pandemic and current staffing shortage. For these reasons and more, Barbara is another vital piece for ensuring the success of the Head Start and Transportation Departments. Barbara says she enjoys working because “It’s a small community and I like the people, I work with”.

Last but not least, Tim Secrest has been PEACE, Inc.’s Transportation Mechanic for 13 years; he has been commended for keeping the agency’s buses safe and has maintained a 100 percent DOT pass rate with NYS. As the mechanic, Tim maintains the fleet of PEACE, Inc. vehicles, including Head Start buses and other company vans. On a typical day, he works on 3 to 4 vehicles a day. Like his fellow Transportation staff members, Tim worked hard throughout COVID to monitor health and safety regulations and to keep the agency’s buses compliant.

Yesterday was a fantastic day at Emma L. Johnston Southside Family Resource Center! We had the honor of hosting a Men’s Wellness Event, and we want to give a big shout-out to all participants for participating in such an important event. We hope everyone had a great time and was able to take away something meaningful.

We want to thank all the great companies and organizations who joined us at the Health and Wellness Fair at the Eastside Family Resource Center! Seeing so many ways to promote healthy living and better health for our community was great. A huge thank you to all who took part in this fantastic event!