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The idea, said BCO director Tom Morrow, is that "once kids try the bus and have fun" at ESPN's showcase competition they will find out how easy and useful public transit can be.
The bus company president, Peter Agostini, said that public transit is his business -- and getting a new generation of riders is critical to its future.
"The more people that ride the bus and learn it, the more it will keep the system in place" for years to come, he said.
He said older people learned to ride the bus years ago but "kids today don't take it" much and don't understand how it operates.
"If we don't start working with the kids today," Agostini said, "what is going to be the future of mass transit?"
Focusing on the problem recently, officials recognized the possibilities created by ESPN's decision to hold one of its two professional competitions in extreme sports at the nation's oldest amusement park.
So they added the special shuttle service to the park on Saturday and agreed to extend the normal service on the Bristol number two line that day from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Agostini said anyone on that line only needs to stand out by the street and wave at the bus driver to catch a ride down to the mall - or anywhere else on the route.
At the mall, Agostini said, buses will run from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The last bus from the park to the mall will leave by 7:15 p.m., he said.
Morrow said that youngsters who want free tokens should come to BCO's office on the second floor of the mall.. The first 250 to request tokens will receive two each, he said.
Morrow recommended that an adult accompany children under the age of 12 on the trip.
Morrow said that at the end of the day, he hopes some young people will "learn they can be become a little more independent by riding the public buses."
"We just really hope it works," Agostini said.
