“I put my gloves on him and told him, ‘It’ll be OK. It’ll be OK.’”
There’s a common stereotype among school bus drivers that they’re completely unsympathetic to the plight of the students they drive to class every day. They’re often accused of overlooking bullying or abuse and sometimes accused of being bullies themselves.
However, school bus driver and Army veteran John Lunceford has defied that stereotype with a kind act that he had no idea would generate any attention whatsoever.
While driving along his route, Lunceford picked up a child who was freezing while waiting for the bus and crying because he was so uncomfortable. Lunceford noticed that the boy had very bright red ears and hands. Upon picking him up, the driver told the local ABC station, “I put my gloves on him and told him, ‘It'll be OK. It'll be OK.’”
He continued on his way to the school and dropped the kids off, as he does every day.
He then broke from routine and headed to a dollar store, where he purchased 10 pairs of gloves and hats in black and pink.
Lunceford then met with the school admins to locate the boy he had picked up. He entered a classroom and gave the boy new gloves and a winter hat to keep him warm in the future. He then turned to the other kids in the class and told them that he had extras if any other kids on his bus route needed them. According to Lunceford, there were a few more takers.
He said, “There was a little girl who said, ‘I don’t have a hat,’ and I said, ‘I’ll take care of you, sweetie.’ I'm a grandfather, you know. No one wants a kid to suffer like that.”
It sounds like the kids and the school are lucky to have a guy like Lunceford around to look out for what the school and parents might miss.
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