Behind the wheel: Cherry Hill bus drivers steer students and stories
A quality control technician, a chemist and a home
health aide walk onto a bus. Actually, it’s just Deena Verhoorn suiting up for a typical workday. With 18 years of experience as a Cherry Hill bus driver, Verhoorn has spent much of her life venturing into unexpected career paths and side hustles.
“I was young, and I wanted to become a scientist, but life happens, and sometimes you have to make a detour,” said Verhoorn.
With an associate’s degree in chemistry, Verhoorn anticipated a future in chemical analysis and laboratory research. Finding this trajectory unrealistic, though, she decided to try her luck in the quality control sector.
There, Verhoorn learned about how the Food and Drug Administration “allows certain amounts of mold, yeast and insects to be in your food,” she said.
Dealing with dozens of frantic kids daily, Verhoorn’s life has always revolved around communication. Recently, she picked up Italian and American Sign Language. Verhoorn finds this skill especially helpful when working with hard-of-hearing patients as a home health aide between her drives.
“My responsibilities [are] to help assist people with their daily activities — getting them washed, dressed and fed. You never know if you’re going to come across a deaf patient, so you have to know how to effectively communicate with that person.”
Spending much of her time in the company of stroke patients and paraplegics makes Verhoorn expect to be treated with a little respect and decency from capable high schoolers along her route.
“Sometimes [students] don’t want to listen to you. I ask them kindly to please sit down and be quiet, but most of the time, I just write them up,” said Verhoorn.
As for what she wants students to recognize about bus drivers, Verhoorn said they are “not dumb” and shouldn’t be “treated like they don’t know anything.”
Indeed, some of the most accomplished professionals find their way into the driver’s seat, transporting the future generations of America.
Sharon Frisby is one of the safest bus drivers on the road. She follows the Smith System, a list of five key points for defensive driving, religiously.
At passenger management meetings, she makes sure to pay close attention because she believes that it’s important to stay calm and patient while being responsible for kids’ lives.
Frisby has worked as a bus driver for 27 years. She has observed changes in kids’ behavior throughout her career.
“They’re using a whole lot of profanity nowadays… it hurts my ears a little bit,” Frisby said. “But I appreciate the good ones.”
It helps that Frisby loves working with people. She used to work as a saleslady, and, if she weren’t a bus driver, she would have been a preschool teacher, TSA bag checker or even run her own foster home.
All of these careers require the patience Frisby prides herself on possessing. She believes that kids “need somebody to have a lot of patience and somebody who’s going to treat them nice.”
In her personal life, Frisby loves roller skating and dancing. In her early 20s, she discovered her love for roller skating after learning at the rink. She also does line-dancing and dances to oldies music.
“I was one that never … had a schedule to go to the gym, so those things kept me active,” said Frisby.
Frisby picks up kids before sunrise all week. Despite the challenges, Frisby’s love for working with kids — especially the good ones — has endured.
“My good ones sit up front,” she said.
On particular days when everything is going wrong, little signs of appreciation can go a long way. That’s why Miriam Alvarez strives to be a positive influence for her kids.
“I always want people to have a good day,” said Alvarez. “[I] make sure that they leave on this bus happy before anything hits them when they get home.”
From a young age, Alvarez approached life with a smile on her face. She embraced various creative outlets to express her inner feelings and relax. Whether it’s dancing, singing or painting acrylic nails, Alvarez is “in a happy place” when she engages with the arts.
But she found her true passion helping the youth. As a former teacher and a mom herself, Alvarez loves to chat with her students along her route and provide impactful affirmations. On one occasion, her generosity went so far as to potentially save a life.
Alvarez always tells the girls on the bus that they genuinely “look beautiful,” knowing the insecurities teens often face. She once received a letter from a particularly grateful student, reading, “Thank you for calling me beautiful, because I never felt like that.” The note also said the student “didn’t want to continue living.” Alvarez was surprised that her simple greetings could hold such a valuable role in the lives of the students she sees for only a few minutes each day.
Only four years into the job, Alvarez has less experience than more tenured drivers. But that hasn’t stopped her from forming bonds that extend well beyond the East parking lot.
The sneeze echoed through the bus, and before the sound
even faded, Sommer Johnson was reaching for the disinfectant spray. Even in the winter, she cracks the windows
open and sanitizes the air as some students cough deliberately, just to see her reaction. She strives to keep her bus spotless at all times and cleans an entire new bus when she must.
“If I hear a cough or a sneeze, I’m spraying,” said Johnson. “My window stays partially open. I don’t care if it’s wintertime or not.”
This is the reality of being a germaphobe and a bus driver. But those same students also know the other side of Johnson — the driver who serves Domino’s pizzas and dessert for end-of-year parties and who decorates the bus all out of her own pocket. With 24 years behind the wheel, Johnson has learned what it means to feel “invisible” and essential at the same time.
Johnson has always been well-cultured as a child. Starting ballet and tap at 5 years old, modeling at 13, and playing the clarinet and piano since the second grade, she has always loved performing.
“I used to love being in the spotlight. I was well-cultured. I always spoke well. People didn’t know I was from Camden because of the way I spoke. I just always stood out,” said Johnson.
Although these pastimes have faded, Johnson plans on buying another clarinet.
“Not for anybody else, but I want to just do it in my spare time. I will always love music. That will always be a love of mine,” she said.
But the love for the spotlight has shifted into something more meaningful: being the kind of adult students can trust. She started in Camden, working with students who exhibited behavior issues.
“Sometimes you have to look beyond that because it could be a problem at home that they’re dealing with,” said Johnson. “Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper and get connected with some of the children.”
Last school year, a Cherry Hill High School East student sat directly behind Johnson instead of her usual spot in the middle.
“She asked me how I’m doing. I told her, ‘I’m OK.’ And I was like, ‘How are you?’ And that’s when she told me about some chronic health things that she’s dealing with, not that’s going to cause her death, but that she’s in pain a lot of times.”
Johnson comforted her through open conversation and was able to support her as an adult mentor.
“We’re not just bus drivers,” said Johnson. “If the students feel comfortable, they confide in us with things. We’re like a mom, counselor, or friend.”
The casino checks were piling up so fast that he could barely keep count. It was less than twenty minutes into his shift when a player threw cash down and hit winner after winner. $300, $1,200, $2,400 — the money began to multiply as a crowd formed around the table. He was knee-deep in checks, and the player had won at least $10,000 before he took his break.
But when he returned 40 minutes later, the player was gone. He finally tracked down his colleague and asked, “How much did the guy win?”
The answer shocked him.
“He lost it all,” his colleague said. In less than 20 minutes, the player had won $10,000, and in less than the following 20 minutes, he lost $20,000.
“And that’s what craps is like,” said Bob Mruczek, former Atlantic City craps dealer.
Today, Mruczek works a different type of chaos: a Cherry Hill school bus. But his path from the craps table to the driver’s seat is a wild ride of steel mills, golf courses, department store security and security sales, all beginning as a Catholic school kid in a Pittsburgh suburb who walked uphill to college every day.
“[College] was a really eye-opening experience for me,” said Mruczek. “It was a way of opening up my personality.” He worked in a steel mill to pay tuition, cut grass on a golf course after graduation and then moved into retail security. A promotion took him to Cape May Courthouse, where he refused another transfer. Then, a roommate mentioned the new Atlantic City casinos were hiring.
Mruczek started in security at Resorts, guarding the hotel lobby, when one day when he spotted her.
“This beautiful girl. Wow, she is really pretty,” said Mruczek.
She would then become his wife and the reason he stayed in New Jersey to this day. They attended craps school together — she had the better hands for cutting checks, and he had the math mind for the game.
“Between the two of us, we made a great dealer, but we could only have one.”
He was promoted within the tables, but casino life was grueling, especially while raising two kids.
In 1987, his wife’s friend suggested computer sales. That first year, he made more money than he ever had at the casino.
Then came the 2010 layoff. Mruczek was in his late 50s.
“It was very difficult to start a new career. They didn’t want old people,” said Mruczek.
A friend suggested bus driving, and now, more than a decade later, he’s still behind the wheel. If you ask him what he wants people to better understand about bus drivers, his answer is simple: “We’re just people, too,” said Mruczek. “We’re just trying to do a job. There’s a lot more to it than just driving the bus.”
