"Books on Buses" program receives Uncommonly Good Award

Common Good Planning Center

ROCHESTER, N.Y., April 26, 2002 – The Common Good Planning Center has named Books on Buses, a program begun last year by the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (R-GRTA), the Spring 2002 recipient of its Uncommonly Good Award.

“Our Award recognizes initiatives that contribute to the common good, rather than to individual or partisan interests,” said Betsy Glavin, executive director of the organization that serves the nine-county Genesee/Finger Lakes region.

“Books on Buses is a clear demonstration of innovation. The program places our region in the limelight as a place that generates new ideas and demonstrates how community organizations and citizens can work together to achieve the common good.”

“R-GRTA board and officers are to be commended for promoting literacy and making public transportation more child-friendly,” Glavin said. “We commend both area school children and book publishers for their generous donations of nearly 25,000 books.”

All 255 R-GRTA buses are now outfitted with bookracks containing a wide variety of books for children. The only cost to the company has been supplying the racks.

“The benefits of books on buses are many, “ said Glavin. “Beyond simply giving children something to do while on the bus, it is an opportunity for parents to spend quality time reading to their children. It gives children who may not have books in the home easy access to them while going about their everyday routines. It also makes public transportation more welcoming for children.”

Activities of the Common Good Planning Center, including this award, focus on maintaining and improving the region’s quality of life and ongoing economic success. Focus is on of the following inter-related concerns: regional cooperation, economic development, environmental protection, land use, transportation, housing, employment, education, equitable taxation and community design.

The Common Good Planning Center is a project of RACF Initiatives, Inc.

Background

Of the 14 million riders, children make up approximately 10,000 of R-GRTA’s passengers. Children daily ride RTS buses to and from school. And for some it is the only transportation available to them other than walking.

To launch the program, R-GRTA officials wrote to Monroe County’s 20 School District Superintendents in hopes of involving elementary school children in securing books. Children responded generously and enthusiastically. They began to make posters, write reports, and use math to tally numbers of books and figure out the percentage of certain types of books. Most importantly, they contributed their own books to the program.

Though most books have come from childr