Jenks Public Schools Honors Man With 'Spirit Of Transportation Award'

A Jenks man is trying to spread as much joy and love as he can to the students at Jenks West every day.

David Winn has been going down his driveway in his wheelchair just about every afternoon during the school year for the last seven or eight years to wave to the students of Jenks West Elementary as they take the bus home.

Jenks Public Schools took notice and decided to show him how much he means to these students, given how much love and support he's shown over the years. Brad Smythe, the Jenks Public Schools director of transportation, presented Winn with the "Spirit of Transportation" award.

Smythe saw firsthand on his first day on the job at Jenks Public Schools what Winn means to the kids, and what the kids mean to Winn.

"I quickly realized he is somebody in this community that’s making a world of difference, and we have to understand that kids today have lots of problems. But when they come by here, it changes the landscape of what they see," Smythe said.

Winn, who has Parkinson's, broke down crying with joy when he found out that Jenks Public Schools was going to honor him with the award, according to his wife, Kim.

The students and the bus drivers that go down the road by Winn's house love seeing him out there every day at 2:30. The students slide the bus windows down so that they can wave and cheer for David every day. Winn, in return, waves back and offers up prayers for all of the students.

It's an everyday thing for Winn, and his wife said that it gives him purpose.

"It makes a difference for him, I mean it gives him purpose. This is the one thing he consistently does every single day that he can, so it brings him lots of joy. He prays for the children as they go by, the bus drivers, and all of them. He just prays for them," Kim Winn, David's wife said.