Bus Driver Knits More Than 7,000 Hats To Gift Students For Winter
It’s always a good thing to have a hobby, but for Patricia Reitz, her hobby has really become her passion. Most people know Patricia as Miss Patty and she has really touched the community in more ways than one.
Miss Patty, a school bus driver from Erie County, wanted to do something with her extra time to help the students. It can get pretty cold in Erie, so she decided to knit some hats.
After a conversation with one of the students, things took a turn from knitting one hat to knitting many hats.
According to WGRZ-TV, she said: “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.”
Several years have passed since that day, and she has already knitted 7,083 hats for students. Currently, she drives children from kindergarten through fifth grade in the Clearance Central School District.
Although she knits many different types of hats, she tends to specialize in Santa hats. She also makes hats shaped like potato sacks and will even put a hole in it so you can wear a ponytail.
Sometimes she will get the student’s favorite color before she begins the project. It makes her feel good because not all of the students have Santa hats.
Perhaps one of the more interesting things about what she has done is that she purchases all the supplies using her own money. Some people do give her gift cards around the holidays to help, but she still puts out a lot of her own money.
Along with making hats for the students that will keep them warm, she also gets praise for being a trusted friend to the students.
Third-grade teacher Deborah Bosworth speaks of her as someone who cares about her students. According to the outlet, she said: “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.”
You can see more in the video below:
