Thursday, October 1, 2026
For over eight decades, the Independent Coach Corporation has been a model of reliability and community in the Five Towns and surrounding neighborhoods. The Inwood Civic Association honored the company as its Citizen of the Year on March 22.
Founded in 1941, Independent Coach is the only charter bus company based in the Five Towns. Its original facilities, at 25 Wanser Ave., in Inwood, and 1145 Railroad Ave., in Hewlett — purchased in 1970 — house more than 225 employees and just as many vehicles. The company transports thousands of children in 18 school districts to and from their school buildings as well as to events and programs. Its network includes Hewlett-Woodmere, Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls, East Rockaway, Valley Stream 13 and West Hempstead, and it also helps facilitate transportation for camps and community organizations like the Five Towns Early Learning Center, in Inwood, and Lawrence’s Rock and Wrap it Up!
The company is owned by the Fabrizio family, of Lawrence. Nanci Quaas, its president since 1997, is one of the late owner Nicholas Fabrizio’s four children. The company’s goal, Quaas said, has always been to give back to the community.
“We just try to do as much as we can,” she said.
Rosemarie Reo, president of the Inwood Civic Association and a 1974 graduate of Lawrence High School, recalled riding Independent Coach buses as a youngster.
“Organizations like Independent Coach don’t boast about what they do,” Reo said. “People need to know that we have good people in the community that are civic-minded.”
Over the years, the bus company, in partnership with the Kiwanis Club of the Five Towns, has provided dozens of children at the Five Towns Early Learning Center with transportation for trips whose destinations range from the Peninsula Public Library, in Lawrence, to the New York Aquarium, in Brooklyn.
Pepper Robinson, the Early Learning Center’s executive director, described the company as generous and helpful. “Independent Coach has been very good to us over the years,” Robinson said. “They are there whenever we ask them.”
When it isn’t providing transportation for children, Independent Coach helps deliver donated clothing for Syd Mandelbaum’s Rock and Wrap It Up! Since the early 2000s, the bus company and the nonprofit have partnered to collect clothing worn by members of the New York Giants and Yankees, and Independent Coach has also been involved in Nassau County Veterans Stand Down, which provides clothing veterans in need. The Fabrizios have regularly sent a bus filled with volunteers, driven by Michael Sperber, now the manager of the company’s Inwood office, to help out.
Mandelbaum met Nicholas Fabrizio in the 1980s, when he was a Board of Education trustee in the Lawrence school district, and the two negotiated bus contracts.
“The Fabrizios are a great family, and their impact on the community is tremendous,” Mandelbaum said. “They’re a great organization, and their environmental consciousness is what makes them special.”
Independent Coach was founded in 1941, with one bus, by Francis Levett. Fabrizio began working for the company, as a driver and a mechanic, in 1955. He worked alongside Levett until 1973, learning the ins and outs of the school bus business. After a 23-year stint as general manager, Fabrizio and his family bought the company from Levett’s estate.
The civic association has hosted the Citizen of the Year dinner since 1963, recognizing individuals and organizations for their service. A seven-member committee makes the nominations, and the honorees over the years have included the Inwood Fire Department and Sanitary District 1. Fabrizio himself was honored in 2019, and now, Quaas said, the honor has come full circle.
“Being selected as a family was very special,” she said. “We were very honored, and remain committed to helping the community however we can through our services.”
