This is so amazing! Miss Patty is maybe the best bus driver in the entire country for doing this over MANY many years.
Here’s how it all started, she spoke with a local NBC affiliate.
“The one boy gets on the bus, and he goes ‘what are you doing?’ I said I’m making a hat. He said ‘that would be great going down ski slopes at Holiday Valley.’ So I said what color would you like? That started everything!”
She’s worked for the Clarence School District for over 30 years in New York state. She starting working in the school district in the cafeteria but then made her way to the school bus. She starting crocheting back in 2005 and ever since, really hasn’t stopped.
Most kids have actually KEPT their hats from when they got it! Take fifth grader Wesley Kwiatek, he got his back in kindergarten and STILL has it to the this day. He told his local NBC affiliate.
“It just stands out because it’s like knitted. It’s just knit in like a good way. You just can’t lose it,” said Kwiatek.
She uses her own money in order to buy the yarn needed for the hats. She also makes scrunchies, blankets and so much more. Kids and parents over the years have contributed by giving Miss Patty gift cards to help her pay for, you guessed it, YARN!
It takes a lot of yarn to make what is now up to over 7,000 hats for these students!! Even her fellow coworkers hold her in such high esteem!
“She cares. She cares about her students,” said third-grade teacher Deborah Bosworth. “Any student that I’ve had that has been on Miss Patty’s bus gets a hat, and they also get a friend. Miss Patty is one of the favorites.”
This women deserves all the love in the world, she’s amazing!!
