Gardian Angel
Pedestrian School Bus Lighting System
Students should be seen, not hit
The Gardian Angel pedestrian school bus lighting system is a copyrighted, and patented product. Any misuse, or misrepresentation of our system is a violation of Federal Law, and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Gardian Angel, LLC has established itself as a prominent player in the industry, owing to the exceptional contributions of our team. We take great pride in the remarkable creativity and unwavering drive of each team member. We invite you to peruse their profiles to gain insight into the passion that propels our company forward.
Steve Gardner
Founder / CEO
Steve Gardner has a prominent background in the transportation industry. Steve is a former school bus mechanic for twenty years at the Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities, who wrenched his way into a fleet maintenance supervisor position for another 15 years. He was a licensed mechanic in Michigan, and was an ASE master technician in heavy trucks and school buses as well. Mr. Gardner was an active member in the Ohio School Bus Mechanics association for over 25 years. Steve is credited with organizing the first mock school bus disaster in the state of Ohio in 1996, which involved mentally and physically challenged individuals.
Steve is also the inventor of the Gardian Angel.
Public Speaking:
Steve Gardner spoke at the 2013 National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) annual conference, where he demonstrated the Gardian Angel school bus lighting system for State Directors, the State and National Associations Council, the Supplier Council, along with other nationally recognized experts and associates.
Andrew Gardner
Director of Marketing
Andrew Gardner is the Director of Marketing for Gardian Angel, LLC. and Steve Gardner's youngest son. He's an accomplished marketing professional with 10 years’ experience that has a proven track record of cost-effectively reaching over 110 million+ consumers. Andrew Gardner successfully developed his own brand, FATHER-IN-SAW, which had 36 handmade products featured in 8 mainstream magazine websites including:
People, Better Homes & Gardens, Allrecipes, Shape, Fitness, Parenting, MyWedding, and More magazine more than 65 times to date.
Andrew Gardner's Awards
Andrew Gardner is a current candidate for the 2024, 20 Under 40 Toledo awards. Each year, Leadership Toledo, Inc. recognizes young community leaders with the 20 Under 40 Award. Showcasing twenty leaders—all under the age of 40—the program recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves in their careers and/or in the community. In turn, 20 Under 40 intends to motivate other young leaders throughout Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan.
Andrew’s business management, combined with a decade of vast practical experience in marketing and sales, have given him the skills and strategic vision to develop and execute successful marketing strategies. He grew not just one, but two successful local brands from inception, all while being a stay-at-home dad. Unlike Toledo marketing firms that prey on small businesses in attempts to groom them into paid advertisements, Andrew’s organic approach to marketing meant long-term success for the businesses he’s established and managed. Andrew proved earning your rank among the internet and to your customers is a much more successful marketing strategy.
His career in marketing started off as a marketing research intern at TNS Global where he collected project-related information to compile a database of over 10,000 studies. Once his internship ended, he worked as a marketing intern for one of the Fortune 500 companies in Ohio. It was here at HCR ManorCare that his passion for marketing started to blossom as Andrew assisted with sales training's and created reports for the Vice President of Marketing and Analytics.
About a year after his Fortune 500 marketing internship ended, Andrew worked for Gardian Angel, LLC. He grew this Toledo small business from inception in January 2010 with his father, Steve Gardner. Over the years working with Gardian Angel, LLC Andrew’s marketing strategies have proved highly successful. Gardner advised, helped established, and provided many marketing efforts for Gardian Angel, LLC including the web design, development and implementation of marketing strategy, and managing social media channels. This Toledo based company has designed, patented, and produced a lighting system which acts as a preventative measure for stopping motorists who illegally pass school buses, and allows children increased safety while loading or unloading the school bus. While implementing his marketing plan for Gardian Angel, LLC Andrew wrote articles as a contributor for a school bus trade magazine, School Transportation News. He's most noted in the school bus industry for his 3-part blog series about bullying. Gardner’s own anti-bullying campaign raised the bar on ethics as he set an unprecedented step persuading public policy lawmakers to increase and enforce additional ethical laws throughout the pupil transportation industry. Leading organizations and school transportation officials including members of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services acknowledged Andrew Gardner’s ethical efforts.
Scroll through and read the series along with his other articles in STN Magazine here:
If that wasn’t enough, Andrew took his hobby of woodworking and started an e-commerce store in 2016 where he started FATHER-IN-SAW. Gardner’s remarkable digital marketing efforts for his own brand included the advertising, content marketing, logo design, packaging, pricing, photography, manufacturing, marketing research, marketing strategy, search engine optimization, and social media marketing. In less than two years, his humble brand could be found through the websites of national magazines like People and Better Homes & Gardnes.
(Just in case you were wondering he accomplished this organically, without even a penny of paid advertisements.)