This Christmas, Doug Hayes bought a small school bus for the sole purpose of driving his ten grandchildren to school every day. He delighted them with this unusual gift a few days before Christmas. “When they saw it, they were thrilled,” he says. Half of her grandchildren go to a small private school that doesn’t have its own buses, so parents have to drop off and pick up students every day. “The little ones always say, ‘We have a great school, but we miss the school bus!’ says Doug. And now the problem is solved – all thanks to the wonderful grandpa! The other five grandchildren are still preschoolers, but soon they will also be going to school and will be able to ride grandfather’s bus for many years.
All of Hayes’ grandchildren live within a 20-minute radius of his home, and their school is only about four kilometers away. So he plans to deliver them all in the morning before work. He first came up with the idea when his wife, Amy, asked him what big goals he wanted to achieve in his life. “I want to have a bus to pick up all my grandchildren every morning and take them to school before work,” he answered his wife’s question. We will sing songs, chat, and they will have unforgettable impressions of grandfather. And now the dream began to come true:
Doug and Amy began to think seriously about what it would cost them. The search lasted about a month, and finally the couple found a bus, already decorated especially for the little ones – with magnets and numbers on the ceiling. They decided to equip all seats with seat belts. From now on, the little ones will go to school on their own, but the grandfather thinks he was even luckier. “The essence of this gift was that my husband could influence the next generation by leaving them wonderful memories of how they spent time together every day,” says Amy Hayes.
