FARMINGTON – Perhaps it was an attempt to see how the new push for school regionalization would work. But when SAD 9 lent a hand – and a bus complete with driver – to SAD 52, those involved just chalked it up to longstanding “Maine tradition.”

During January’s cold snap, student-athletes on the ski team from SAD 52 were skiing at Farmington’s Titcomb Mountain. While the team hit the slopes, their bus driver headed into town to get a cup of coffee, where her bus broke down. At that point, SAD 52 called SAD 9’s Transportation Department to see if someone could look over the bus.

In less than 10 minutes, a SAD 9 mechanic appeared. That district also sent a bus to pick up the stranded students so they wouldn’t be waiting in the subzero temperatures, took them to their broken-down bus to pick up their belongings and then, because the bus still wasn’t working, drove the team back to Turner.

A second SAD 9 mechanic also arrived on scene and spent several hours trying to get the dead bus started.

The incident was described in a lengthy and profuse thank-you from SAD 52 Superintendent Thomas Hanson to his SAD 9 counterpart, Michael Cormier.

On Tuesday night, that letter was shared with the SAD 9 Board of Directors.

The letter said that when SAD 52’s transportation head went to the SAD 9 garage to offer thanks and also pick up the bill, Transportation Director David Leavitt told him there was none.

“All I ask, is if we are in your neck of the wood and need help, just be there for us!” said Leavitt, according to Hanson’s note.

“This response, along with the incredible willingness to help someone in need, was well beyond what any one of us could expect,” Hanson wrote.

“The behavior your people displayed towards us is a good example of the ‘Maine tradition’ of helping one another. It also served as a model for all of us working SAD 52 as to how to respond to others when they are in need of assistance.”

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