DART celebrates 50th anniversary with debut of new fleet, Stuff-A-Bus event
Published 12:55 pm Wednesday, October 29, 2025
City and county officials, community members and volunteers were on hand to celebrate the debut of Dowagiac Dial-A-Ride Transit’s new vehicle fleet. In addition, the city partnered with local grocery stores Family Fare, Harding’s Market and Save A Lot to have the new buses parked in their lots Monday morning through the afternoon for Stuff-A-Bus events. (Submitted)
City and county officials, community members and volunteers were on hand to celebrate the debut of Dowagiac Dial-A-Ride Transit’s new vehicle fleet. In addition, the city partnered with local grocery stores Family Fare, Harding’s Market and Save A Lot to have the new buses parked in their lots Monday morning through the afternoon for Stuff-A-Bus events. (Submitted)
City and county officials, community members and volunteers were on hand to celebrate the debut of Dowagiac Dial-A-Ride Transit’s new vehicle fleet. In addition, the city partnered with local grocery stores Family Fare, Harding’s Market and Save A Lot to have the new buses parked in their lots Monday morning through the afternoon for Stuff-A-Bus events. (Submitted)
City and county officials, community members and volunteers were on hand to celebrate the debut of Dowagiac Dial-A-Ride Transit’s new vehicle fleet. In addition, the city partnered with local grocery stores Family Fare, Harding’s Market and Save A Lot to have the new buses parked in their lots Monday morning through the afternoon for Stuff-A-Bus events. (Submitted)
City and county officials, community members and volunteers were on hand to celebrate the debut of Dowagiac Dial-A-Ride Transit’s new vehicle fleet. In addition, the city partnered with local grocery stores Family Fare, Harding’s Market and Save A Lot to have the new buses parked in their lots Monday morning through the afternoon for Stuff-A-Bus events. (Submitted)
City and county officials, community members and volunteers were on hand to celebrate the debut of Dowagiac Dial-A-Ride Transit’s new vehicle fleet. In addition, the city partnered with local grocery stores Family Fare, Harding’s Market and Save A Lot to have the new buses parked in their lots Monday morning through the afternoon for Stuff-A-Bus events. (Submitted)
DOWAGIAC — The 50th anniversary of Dowagiac’s local ride-share service was celebrated with much fanfare Monday morning.
City and county officials, community members and volunteers were on hand to celebrate the debut of Dowagiac Dial-A-Ride Transit’s new vehicle fleet. In addition, the city partnered with local grocery stores Family Fare, Harding’s Market and Save A Lot to have the new buses parked in their lots Monday morning through the afternoon for Stuff-A-Bus events.
The fleet has been upgraded with three new vehicles which feature wider, higher-capacity lifts, video displays that feature pertinent announcements and other information, passenger-assist handles on the boarding doors and all-new design.
Cass County Transportation Coordinator Gerry Bundle said county transportation technician Jimmie Anderson played a key role in the fleet’s improvements as well as coming up with the idea for the Stuff-A-Bus drive.
“He did a tremendous amount of design, engineering and fabrication work to get this together,” he said. “He has done a tremendous job with this.”
“It’s nice to be able to see the community’s reaction to the buses and stuff and to let the people in the community see it and get a feel for it and see the new upgrades that we’ve done for the community,” Anderson added.
Bundle presented city officials with a plaque commemorating Dowagiac DART’s 50th anniversary.
“It’s been 50 years, and that’s a commitment this community made to itself: to provide transportation for those least able to have it, and the ability to get around – to go to the doctors, go shopping, do all those things that need to be done in the daily course of your life,” said Mayor Don Lyons. “It’s so much easier when you’ve got transportation, and this is transportation at a level we’ve never had before. But that’s not just the end of 50 years, it’s the beginning of a new era. It’s an era of technology. We’re looking at how to reorganize transportation in Dowagiac so it is available more hours of the day, more square miles. How can we serve the entire county from Dowagiac?
“I think all of those things are very much in play right now and are something you can look forward to. I couldn’t be happier.”
Stuff-A-Bus
Community members did their part to combat food insecurity by supporting the Stuff-A-Bus event. The public was encouraged to contribute non-perishable grocery, health, hygiene, or household items to ideally stuff the buses with donations for ACTION Ministries’ pantry.
According to ACTION Ministries, 11 shopping carts-worth of food was donated to the pantry.
“I think that is a testament to the community and their concern for the community,” said City Manager Kevin Anderson.
The organization has seen a significant spike in demand and may soon have to limit assistance due to the uncertainty surrounding SNAP benefits in the state of Michigan. According to Board President Becky Peters, the number of households served on a typical Saturday jumped from the high 50s to 88 this past Saturday. This spike is unusual, resembling the volume typically seen during the end-of-year Christmas or Thanksgiving holiday period. Peters expressed concern for children and seniors, noting that the spike may be due to people being fearful that they cannot feed their kids.
Readers can support ACTION Ministries by sending a check in the mail, or they can donate via the pantry’s PayPal account. The organization is also working on setting up payment options like Venmo or Zelle and accepts cash donations.
Donations can be dropped off at the pantry, 301 Main St., between 10 a.m. and noon on Saturdays, when staff is regularly present. While the most effective way to help is through a monetary donation, the pantry also encourages people to clean out their cabinets and drop off non-expired, unopened food items on Saturday mornings.
For more information, visit actiondowagiac.com.
