Cobb County woman organizes school bus driver appreciation event

COBB COUNTY, Ga - When Mindy Seger saw a social media post from a Cobb County school bus driver saying she needed masks to hand out to children as they boarded the bus, Seger knew she had to step in to help. She decided to organize a school bus driver appreciation event.

"Bus drivers do so much they're the first point of contact our students have when they start their school day," said Seger.

While many schools supply masks,  some drivers said they often run and have to buy their own.

"Sometimes there's a lack of communication of where to get the masks. It just doesn't seem to be consistent or equitable across the county, so we wanted to fill that gap," said Seger.

Seger posted a wish list on Facebook and people started donating. She invited some mom friends over and they had a packing party. Each bag had about $40 worth of items in it, from face shields to cleaning supplies.

Seger posted the bus driver appreciation event on Facebook and this past Saturday she and some friends met at a community center in Smyrna to pass out the supplies. They had 100 bags, and to their surprise, 200 people showed up.

"It was really heartbreaking to have to turn people away and not be able to meet the need, so we knew we had to do something again and we have to do it bigger," said Seger.  

There are 1,100 school bus drivers and monitors in the Cobb County School District. This time Seger wants to have enough bags for 500 drivers. She said she will need help to meet her goal.

"We need all the help we can, so as a community we can come together for these bus drivers," said Seger.

The next bus driver appreciation event will be in mid-March. Seger is already collecting donations, but she's hoping to get some community partners to join her in showing a little love and appreciation to the drivers.

For anyone who would like to help out, Seger has set up a donation wish list on Amazon as well as a PayPal Pool.

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