Not missing a day of work during the 2011-12 school year really paid off for Linda Sasser.

Sasser was one of 87 Effingham County School System employees with perfect attendance in 2011-12. All of them were entered into a drawing for a $1,000 prize from Horace Mann Insurance Company, which Sasser won.

Sasser has been a school bus driver in Effingham County since 1981. She also served as a paraprofessional at Ebenezer Elementary School.

She was recognized at a recent Effingham County Board of Education meeting, where human resources director Becky Long described her phone call to Sasser to tell her the good news.

“I asked her, ‘Are you having a good day?’ She said, ‘Well …’ I said, ‘I’m about to make your day,’” Long said.

“You did,” Sasser said as she accepted the $1,000 check from Craig Jenkins of Horace Mann Insurance Company.