With the school year having wrapped up, some of the staff at the Portage la Prairie School Division (PLPSD) will be calling it a career, but it's not just the teachers that will be missed by students.

Elva Dunn has been a full-time bus driver with the PLPSD for the past 39 years and has been a driver for the division for over 40 years, and this year marked her last. She says she can't believe her journey is over and that the division has been very good to her throughout her career.

She talks about what bus driving was like for her when she began in 1981.

"When I first started, I was probably driving a standard at that point and things weren't as nice as they are today," explains Dunn. "I don't know exactly how many (different) buses I was driving the last couple of years, but I went in at the first of the year, and there was a brand new bus waiting for me."

She adds the new bus from the division was excellent, as it ran on regular gas and not diesel, as well as having a heated seat which worked much faster than on her old bus. She says as a mom, grandma, and great-grandma, she felt like it was time to retire, but she's not 100% sure what her next chapter in life is going to bring.

"I loved my job and I love driving and, yeah, there were probably some mistakes over the years, but no major mistakes," mentions Dunn. "Nobody is perfect in their driving, but I managed to get through without too many bumps and, again, no major bumps and so I'm not sure what it's going to be for me from here."

She mentions, in closing, that if she had the opportunity to go back and do it all over again, she would take it in a heartbeat.

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