SIMMS, Mont. — After smoking cigarettes for 50 years, Sun River Valley Schools bus driver Jerry Hitchcock was able to kick the habit last fall with some help from the passengers who ride his bus. 

Katherine and Karen Leonardson took a hunters' safety course from Hitchcock in October. After the class, the sisters took Hitchcock's pack of cigarettes out of his truck and hid them from him, telling him that he should stop smoking, the Great Falls Tribune reports.

Hitchcock had another pack of cigarettes at home, but he decided then it was time to quit. When he told the Leonardsons about his decision the next day, the girls made a calendar to hang in his bus and wrote a smiley face on it each day that he didn’t smoke.

The support Hitchcock received from the Leonardsons, all of the other older students on his bus and his family has helped him meet his goal, according to the Great Falls Tribune.

The newspaper also reports that Hitchcock recently bought a new truck, which he calls his “pack-and-a-half” truck since the money he no longer spends on cigarettes goes toward it.