91Ƶ

Skip to content

Former Greyhound Canada employees gather in Okanagan to say a final farewell

91ƵGreyhound may take our jobs but they will never take our friendships,91Ƶ says former bus driver

More than 150 Greyhound Canada employees came to Penticton this long weekend to celebrate both the friendships and memories they made as former employees of the company.

91ƵIt91Ƶs a chance to get back together with our friends,91Ƶ said Kelly Arneson, who had been a driver, dispatcher and depot agent for Greyhound for 33 years at a banquet dinner at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre on Saturday.

91ƵWe91Ƶll get to share our fond memories, our bad memories and really just get to have a good time and get some closure.91Ƶ

Recent retirees who used to work for the company in Western Canada were joined by friends and members of the Greyhound Canada family who had been with the company for decades 91Ƶ some since the 1950s.

The party was an opportunity for many to meet up with the coworkers and friends they had met on their routes. People came from as close as Kelowna and as far as Vancouver Island and Edmonton.

For Lynda Verrier, the company was literally her family, with her father, husband, daughter and herself all working for Greyhound. Verrier operated Penticton91Ƶs Greyhound depot from 1985 until the day it closed last October.

91ƵI got to work with my dad, both my brothers, my daughter, my son, and my niece, and my husband too,91Ƶ said Verrier. 91ƵWe91Ƶre very proud of that. Everyone here has always been our family; our friends and our family. I91Ƶve known most of them since I91Ƶve been there. This is going to be a decent ending point, I think, so let91Ƶs dance and spend time with old friends.91Ƶ

Ann Meacham, a driver for 26 years with Greyhound, organized the party. She raised the money for the final get together, originally intended for her own retirement party, and put out the call for every employee that could to come to Penticton and celebrate.

91ƵI was told two-and-a-half years ago that Greyhound wasn91Ƶt going to give us any more money for retirement parties, and I figured that mine was probably going to be the next one,91Ƶ Meacham said.

91ƵSo I started collecting bottles off of buses from agents and drivers, then all of a sudden we got told that everything was ending, and so that91Ƶs when I decided it had to be a whole weekend so people could come from a distance and have lots of time to visit.91Ƶ

Read More:

The feeling of family is one that was echoed by many of the drivers that night, and the connections between them will last long after they said farewell.

91ƵThe motto that this weekend is all about is that Greyhound may take our jobs but they will never take our friendships,91Ƶ Meacham said.

To report a typo, email: editor@pentictonwesternnews.com.

<>



newstips@pentictonwesternnews.com

Like us on and follow us on .



About the Author: Penticton Western News Staff

Read more



(or

91Ƶ

) document.head.appendChild(flippScript); window.flippxp = window.flippxp || {run: []}; window.flippxp.run.push(function() { window.flippxp.registerSlot("#flipp-ux-slot-ssdaw212", "Black Press Media Standard", 1281409, [312035]); }); }