As the bright yellow school bus rounded the bend on Chicora Road, a small crowd gathered, cheering with hands held high above their heads, while cameras and cell phones whizzed and whirred to life in anticipation of the big moment.

Pizza and paper plates sat at the ready on nearby picnic tables.

“It's just another thing that everyone who loves her is trying to make special,” said Keith Bartholomew, devoted father of the guest of honor.

The bus pulled into the small parking lot of Gino's Dairy Stand in Chicora with laughter and love spilling from its windows. The doors opened and nearly 20 people disembarked with smiles, and all decked out in shirts proudly announcing the arrival of “Olivia's Pride.”

As Olivia Bartholomew left the bus in the arms of her dad, tears glistened in corners of every eye there. Wiping away his own tears, the proud pop thanked everyone for coming out to show their love and support for his daughter.

And she beamed right back, gently taking her father's face in her small hands. “She misses the normal things taken away from her,” Bartholomew said.

The 15-year-old recalls carefree days riding on the bus with her friends from Dassa McKinney Elementary School in the Moniteau School District. She misses interacting with her buddies as they bounced along the rural roads and rolling hills of the West Sunbury area before and after school.

But life changed for Olivia and her entire family five years ago.

That's when Olivia was diagnosed with a rare mitochondrial disease known as Kearns-Sayre Syndrome that disables her body's ability to produce energy and precluded her from riding the bus anymore.

Bartholomew said it now takes about three hours each morning to get Olivia ready for her day. His daughter is also not as reactive to events and people as in years past.

“She's starving for energy,” he said.

Not boarding a bus since she stopped riding to school in fifth grade, Olivia has longed to climb the steps of the big yellow vehicle just one more time. “Any wishes we can do, we want to do for her,” said Olivia's aunt, Holly Collins. “COVID-19 took a lot away from us.”

While Olivia talked about missing her daily commute to and from school, sending her on the bus is just too dangerous, Bartholomew explained. “She's constant care,” he said. “In 15 minutes, something could happen.”

Keith, who shares custody of Olivia with her mother, Sherry Bartholomew, beamed when he saw the crowd gathered around his daughter.

“The community has just been amazing,” he said. “There are so many good people.”

Keith said Olivia has significant issues with her blood sugar due to her disease. The loving, doting, dedicated dad never left his daughter's side as she enjoyed a piece of pizza.

The bus ride earlier this week from their home to the ice cream stand was originally supposed to look much different. It was supposed to be a rare occasion when Olivia could ride the bus to school like everyone else.

Keith said his daughter has a pacemaker keeping her heart beating steadily, but 70 degrees with a breeze is the most extreme heat level her body can tolerate.

“She doesn't sweat, so she just wilts,” he said of why the original bus trip would have been in the winter.

Keith said everything was set. Weeks of planning and the wheels were ready to roll. Until a snow storm put on the brakes on and canceled school.

On its heels came COVID-19 and turned the world upside down. The family's trip to Disney World was also put on ice. The rest is pandemic history.

As communities across the county emerged from the closure, Moniteau School Board member Mike Baptiste, Superintendent Tom Samoski and a handful of others cooked up a cool plan. On Tuesday evening, Olivia and her family were picked up by a Campbell Bus Lines bus bursting with about a dozen other classmates all holding signs saying “We love you, Olivia” and other uplifting sentiments.

Baptiste's daughter Ashlyn met Olivia in third grade. “She's the sweetest little girl ever,” Ashlyn said.

The girls sometimes chat about Ashlyn's cat, and Olivia visits the Baptiste home to occasionally hang out.

“I feel bad sometimes because I know she wants to do all the things I can, so you've just got to take it a little easy (when playing with Olivia,)” Ashlyn said.

The girls saw the movie “Frozen 2” together and the Baptistes bought Olivia a blanket with the movie's characters.

“She's got a real sense of humor,” Ashlyn said. “She always yells at my Dad and stuff.”

Adds friend Sophia Tennent, 15, “I think it's inspiring that everyone that cares about Olivia was able to get together and show her their support and love.”

The party bus proceeded to the Donegal Township ice cream stand where even more people awaited Olivia and her classmates.

“This just shows what people in our area do for one another in good times and in bad,” said Janet Campbell, who owns the bus company with her husband, Gerald “Jerry” Campbell.

Baptiste said an anonymous donor volunteered to pay for the ice cream.

“The most touching point for me was seeing her hug the kids as the came by,” said bus driver Troy Hall. “She hugged each and every kid as they came past her seat.”

Also on the bus was Olivia's former bus driver, Diane Thompson, who stills drives bus for the district — and would have been driving Tuesday if not for surgery on her foot. Thompson recalled with tears in her eyes those last days that Olivia rode the bus before she was no longer able to do so.

“Olivia was so excited every time I pulled up at the school this year,” said Thompson about how Olivia's face would light up every time she saw her former bus driver. “Her dad always wanted her to sit up front where I could keep an eye on her, but she refused and always wanted to sit in back with her friends.”

Barb Wallace, who co-owns Gino's Dairy Stand with her husband, Tim, a childhood friend of Keith's, said they received a call that the special bus ride was going to stop at the ice cream stand. “The main thing is her riding that school bus,” Wallace said. “That's a big deal for her. It's great.”

But even the second bus ride almost didn't happen as Olivia and her dad spent all day Tuesday at Butler Memorial Hospital due to complication from Olivia's illness. Keith thanked the regional hospital's doctors, nurses and staff for making sure his daughter was able to make this ride.

Ashlyn was glad to ride the bus again with her friend.

“I think she deserves the world,” Ashlyn said. “She's so nice.”

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