After nearly a quarter-century of driving a bus for Cary School District 26, Sonia Carter's little passengers still bring a smile to her face.

By Lee Ann Gill

At first, driving a school bus was simply a good way for Sonia Carter to earn money while her kids were in school. As the years rolled by, the job became the one thing that can make Sonia smile.

Nearly 25 years later, she can’t imagine life without greeting her busload of grade-school-aged children each morning and saying goodbye to them each afternoon.

“You meet people—it’s nice—especially in the winter,” Carter said. “It’s cold and gray, but everybody’s smiling. It makes my day—watching the children smile.”

The work schedule, with holidays and summers off, first attracted Carter to driving a school bus.

“When my child was getting ready to go to kindergarten, I applied,” she said. “The schedule—when my kids were little—was nice. I didn’t need a babysitter, and I had Christmas and summer vacation.”    

Now Carter looks back on her job as the reason she made it through the time when both of her children were serving in the army—when her son, Mathius, was in Iraq.    

“If I didn’t have my children in my bus, I probably would have gone crazy,” she said. “They were my help through that time.”    

As a Cary resident of 28 years and as a school bus driver, Carter watched the town change.    

“When I started we had eight buses,” she said. “Now, we have a lot of buses because the town has grown a lot. We have more buses and more drivers.”

The October 1995 bus accident, when a commuter train crashed into a school bus and killed seven Cary-Grove High School students, put fear into Carter.

“After the accident you got a little bit nervous,” she said. “I drive in the country area. I don’t have to be with children in the city. I’m glad I don’t have to go by the train tracks.”

A couple years back, Carter stopped picking up junior high students.

“I stopped doing junior high—it was too stressful,” she said. “I drive only elementary now.”    

On Carter’s bus, the kindergarten and first grade students are the children who need special attention.    

“We focus a lot on kindergarten and first graders,” she said. “There has to be someone waiting for them. If not, we have to return the child to school.”

That rarely happens, she said, adding, “We live in a nice area with parents who care.”    

Daily, Carter drives between 6:45 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. and then from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. She also drives special runs, taking home students who stay for after-school programs.    

Every so often, Carter meets up with a student she had when she first started her career.    

“I ran into one of my kids who I had when she was little and she has her own children now,” Carter said.

At 52, she has no plans to quit, saying, “I have at least 20 years to retire.”