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# A token of goodwill
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/a-token-of-goodwill/
- Published: 2004-01-31T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:42:28.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Community, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Donating its bus to science*

*By MICHAEL TITTINGER Daily Press Staff Writer*

BUS BARN — Call it a lesson in environmentalism, a lesson in goodwill or a lesson in generosity. But to the tiny Mexican town of Sinaloa, the Big Blue Bus’ donation of a retired education bus on Friday was a lesson in compassion that transcended borders and cultural differences.

A humble ceremony was held here at dusk befitting the gesture of goodwill, as Juan Torres, the executive director of the Sinaloa Ecoregion Foundation took custody of the bus and prepared for its journey south of the border over the weekend. The bus, its sides stripped of the transit company’s familiar lowercase white lettering, will be used to transport Mexican students at the nonprofit science center Centro de Ciencia de Sinaloa to field trips at the Gulf of California, where they will be able to study ecology and science firsthand.

“It feels great to provide this bus that will be used as an educational tool in our sister city of Sinaloa,” said Stephanie Negriff, the director of transportation services for the City of Santa Monica, just prior to cutting a ribbon stretched across the open and welcoming bus door.

Today, the bus will be driven well beyond its customary 51-square mile service area for good.

The bus was first purchased by Big Blue Bus in 1985 and was in service for the better part of 14 years, averaging more than 72,000 miles annually. Buses are typically “retired” when the cost of maintenance is deemed to be no longer cost-effective.

For the past four years, the bus was dubbed “an education bus,” used primarily to shuttle Santa Monica-Malibu school district students to the Big Blue Bus yard off Colorado Avenue in order to allow them to participate in the company’s Student Art Program. The art program instructs students on such things as the environmental benefits that result from using public transportation, as well as such practical lessons as learning to read a bus map.

“On behalf of the city of Sinaloa, I’d like to extend my many thanks to Santa Monica and the Big Blue Bus,” Torres remarked through an interpreter. “This bus is gonna help educate a lot of children.”

The relationship between the Big Blue Bus and the science center in Sinaloa was sparked through the Pacific Roundtable on Sustainability, and international group of cities committed to sound environmental practices.

“Donating this retired bus to the Sinaloa Science Center will help young people learn about science and the environment,” said Negriff. “It supports our commitment to support youth, education and transportation.”

The estimated value of the donated bus was believed to be around $4,000.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/013104-03_01.jpg)

(Photo: Mike Tittinger/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 31, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/013104.pdf?ref=smdp.com)