East Longmeadow resident and bus driver Rick Malmborg.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
EAST LONGMEADOW — Not all heroes wear capes; some drive a school bus instead.
Rick Malmborg, a Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative bus driver, is celebrating a big win after receiving the award for transportation at the 29th Annual Howdy Awards, held this year at Springfield’s MassMutual Center on April 27.
Explore Western Mass created the Howdy Awards in 1996 with the purpose of recognizing and celebrating front-line employees across the hospitality industry, from food service and retail to employees at attractions like Bright Nights.
Malmborg became a bus driver with LPVEC three years ago as a retirement gig. He said he was at the age to retire and decided to give it a shot.
“LPVEC was nice enough to train me during the day, so I could continue my job at night, and then once I got my certificate on my license to drive the bus, I retired,” Malmborg said. “I mean, my son is the one who recommended that, he’s like ‘dad, you ought to be a bus driver,’ and my daughter said the same thing.”
He was one out of 1,400 total nominations for this year’s awards, which was then whittled down to 65 finalists and 10 winners. He said he thought it was a joke when his boss handed him the nomination at work.
“I opened it up, and sure enough, I was shocked,” Malmborg said. “Come to find out, it was the high school kids I used to deliver back and forth between East Longmeadow, Longmeadow to [LPVEC Career Technical Educational Center] in West Springfield. I was happy and shocked … It really didn’t sink in until I actually got to the award ceremony. I’m just doing my job, I’m just a retired guy driving a bus to kill some time.”
Malmborg said that he doesn’t think about getting awards or any gratification while he’s on the clock, and that the only gratification he needs is “getting the kids from point A to point B.” He added that to be a good bus driver, you have to have compassion and kindness for the kids on the bus.
“You want to treat the kids like you would want to be treated by them,” Malmborg said. “I got to know them, I mean, from freshmen all the way to seniors in high school, so I got to see the progression of each kid. New kids come along every year, you try and get a rapport with them … you just have to have an open mind driving the bus. Currently right now, I do a different route, so I’m seeing a range of different kids, from high school all the way down to kindergarten. I still interact with them, high fives and what not and just trying to make them feel comfortable on the buses. Some of these little kids, they’re just paranoid on the bus, you know, paranoid in the traffic, and mom and dad not being around. You kind of have to just watch them a little bit more than you would the high school kids.”
Malmborg made sure to say thank you to his wife Kathy, his son Adam Malmborg and his daughter Lindsay Linnehan for helping him with his speeches, while also thanking his son-in-law Tim Linnehan, his grandsons Will and Owen Linnehan and all of the kids who nominated him.
