BUS DRIVER KNITS OVER 7,000 HATS FOR ALL STUDENTS SHE DROVE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

Sometimes a little personal endeavour can have a significant impact on a whole community. Patricia Reitz, well known as Miss Patty, a school bus driver from Erie County, took up knitting in her leisure time to reduce stress while caring for her elderly mother. She was working on a hat while waiting for a group of high school students. Soon enough, a brief interaction would transform everything. "The one boy gets on the bus and says, 'What are you doing?'" I stated I was making a hat.

He responded, "That would be amazing going down the ski slopes at Holiday Valley." So I said, "What colour do you like?" "That sparked everything," Miss Patty recounted. Now, several years later, she has made 7,083 hats for the youngsters who have used her bus over the years. Reitz, who currently drives children from kindergarten to fifth grade for the Clarence Central School District, specialises in Santa hats but has also created other forms of headgear. She's produced potato sack-shaped caps with two tassels on top, as well as parts with a hole for a ponytail to poke through. When she has the chance, she asks the kid to select their preferred colours for the project.

"It makes me happy that I can give them something to wear because many of the kids don't have Santa hats," Reitz says.

One of the most striking aspects of her knitted hats is that she purchases all of her materials with her own money. Fortunately, she receives some gift cards throughout the holidays to help with her bills. Fittingly, this is when pupils proudly wear their knitted Santa hats. "It just jumps out because it's knitted," says fifth-grader Wesley Kwiatek, who treasures the Santa hat he received in kindergarten. "It's basically knitted in a nice way. "You simply cannot lose it."

In addition to having a beautifully crafted accessory that will keep them warm during the cooler months, the community thanks Miss Patty for being a trusted friend to the youngsters. Deborah Bosworth, a third-grade teacher, says, "She cares about her children." "Any student I've had who has taken Miss Patty's bus receives a hat and a friend. Miss Patty is one of our favourites."