New Bluefield State University athletics bus is blessed and ready to roll

Feb. 1—By GREG JORDAN

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUEFIELD — God's blessing was requested Wednesday for a new 40-passenger bus which will carry Bluefield State University's athletes to and from their competitions.

Supporters gathered at the university campus to see the new vehicle and learn about the act of generosity that made its purchase possible.

"We had a very generous person to donate her funds to the institution and the athletic department to do this for our students," said Dr. Deirdre Guyton, director of alumni affairs for Bluefield State University. "It's not very customary, but you know I'm a believer and I think if this is going to be traveling on the highways and byways with our babies, we need to have God bless it for safe travels, traveling mercies, however, you want to put it; so I'm going to ask Rev. Moore right now if he'll step up to the plate and bless it, the bus."

The Rev. Garry Moore, chancellor of Bluefield State, led the people gathered outside the bus in prayer.

"Eternal God our Father, we are so grateful that You had this generous anonymous donor who gave us the funds in order to have this particular bus," Moore said as people bowed their heads. "Transportation has been foundational, a mainstay of human existence. We realize that Adam and Eve walked out of the Garden of Eden. We realize, oh God, that the people of Israel walked out of Egypt on foot and we realize, oh God, up until the last century that we have wheels that were propelled by engines and gasoline actually help us get on the roads and the highways and the byways; and flight with fixed wings and we had space shuttles and all of that."

"But we are here today, oh God, to bless this particular bus," Moore said. "That not only takes one person but takes multiple people, teams in particular, on the road to have competitions with other schools, and we thank you, oh Lord, for not only for the gift but we thank You for our students who will benefit mostly from this."

Moore asked that God give the driver, the athletes aboard the bus and people all round them "grace and mercy" as they traveled.

After the blessing, Interim President Darrin Martin said that an alumnus's generosity made buying the 40-passenger bus possible.

"She asked to remain anonymous," Martin stated. "We believe it's a she. She donated $227,000 to help us purchase this bus."

Bluefield State's athletic teams travel great distances to games in places like Virginia and North Carolina, Martin said.

"Being able to carry an entire team and the team's equipment in a new vehicle that can reach destinations safely is very important, he added.

"Any time you're a small institution and you're able to get that large an amount of money, it's appreciated," Martin said.

Derrick Price, vice president of intercollegiate athletics for Bluefield State, said having the new bus will make "a huge difference" for the university's teams. Many college and university teams charter buses, making them a common sight on campuses.

"To actually have your own bus on someone else's campus, that means a lot," Price said. "It's branding. It's recruiting. It's everything this is going to be able to help us out with."

Price said he hopes the university can acquire even more buses and some vans with help from donors.

"We're looking for some new donors. Maybe we can get two buses," he said. "Maybe we can get some donors to provide new 15-passenger vans for our smaller teams. We still have a lot of smaller sports like golf that have maybe only 10 players, so they would not use the bus as much as somebody else would; but if we had some new 15-passenger vans for those teams, that would be great for us."

Buses for the university's football teams will still be chartered since those teams can have over 100 players, but that would leave the new bus available for smaller teams such as soccer and volleyball, Price said.

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com