Archive: Around Town

Twelve-year-old Hannah Findley, a sixth-grader at Dewitt Middle School, had never looked at a bus schedule and only recalls being on a TCAT bus once when she was a little girl.

That was until Friday morning, April 30, when Hannah and 36 of her fellow students at the school participated in Dewitt’s third-annual “Great TCAT Race,” a scavenger hunt in which they all got the chance to learn how to ride the bus, read schedules and use TCAT’s new upgraded fare collection system with the new Tcards.

 “I like that the bus is air conditioned and you can sit down after walking, “said Hannah.  “I will probably ride it in the future.

That’s music to the ears of both Dewitt Principal Ron Acerra and TCAT General Manager Joe Turcotte.


The event is the brainchild of Acerra, who wanted to teach students the many merits of using public transportation. Acerra got the idea three years ago when fuel prices were edging upward and he worried about sustainability in general. “We understand mass transit is the answer, but we never taught our students how to use the bus system,” Acerra said. 

Acerra contacted TCAT and made the race part of Dewitt’s Focus Day, an annual school event in which both students and staff participate in activities that promote a sense of community and wellness.  Turcotte said he and his staff were more than thrilled to offer their assistance.

“It is especially important to teach young people about the benefits, safety and ease of using the bus so that they incorporate public transit into their lives in the future,” Turcotte said. “We at TCAT applaud Dewitt for making this an annual event.”

Before catching the Route 31 bus on Friday morning, Hannah and her fellow students and their chaperones met with Acerra, Dewitt math teacher Lee Kaltman and other faculty to learn about the rules of the race. Also on hand were TCAT staff to include Charlie Brundza, superintendent of operations, Steve Newman, transit service supervisor, Jenn Jennings, marketing assistant, and Tammie Charbono, customer service representative, who all gave the students lessons on riding the bus. Brundza and Newman even brought a bus to demonstrate to the students beforehand how to use the Tcard with the electronic swipe system.

TCAT staff also provided the students with day-pass Tcards as well as schedules and students boarded the Route 31 around 10 a.m. 

The hunt covered key locations in Ithaca city and the Cornell Campus with the students using four different routes.  Students had to stop 13 destinations, such as Tompkins Public Library,   Ithaca City Hall, and the Cornell Dairy Bar (the most popular stop) where they were treated to ice cream.At each stop they had to collect an item, such as a “Summer Reading” bookmark from the library, or answer a question, such as in the case of the dairy bar, the price of a hot fudge sundae. They earned points for each stop so long as they got the answer or the item on the list.

All the teams had to be back on campus by 3 p.m. sharp after which time points were tallied.  The winning six-member, chaperoned by Samantha Fishman, Dewitt speech language therapist, won with 11,800 points.  The students in the winning team were: Kenzo Uchigasaki, sixth-grade; Aaron Simmons, seventh-grade; Chris Skawski, eighth-grade; Colleen Gorsky, seventh-grade’ Jason Lee, sixth-grade; and Erika Uchigasaki, eighth-grade.

“It was a hoot; an absolute blast,” said Fishman. She was also impressed with the bus operators. One student lost his pass, a bus operator found it and even tracked the team down to return it to him.

TCAT staff, including Turcotte, returned to the school in the afternoon to greet the students as they made it back to campus and to award the jubilant winners with TCAT summer youth passes (each a $50 value) that will enable them to use the bus all summer.

Though not all students could be top winners, they all were quite happy to participate in the race.

Dewitt eighth-graders Viktor Lillard and Cole Odell, said they both ride TCAT buses frequently to get where they need to go. Their team didn’t win, but they said it didn’t matter as they both had a lot of fun.


“I love TCAT, how convenient it is,” said Viktor. “It stops pretty much anywhere I need to go.” 

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