Wisconsin bus driver Trudy Serres crochets toys for each of the elementary school kids on her route.
Whatever they ask for -- no matter how wacky the requests -- they get. She’s done ice cream cones, unicorns, “Star Wars” characters and many more-elaborate, custom designs.
“She is the best,” parent Peggy Lamon, who has three children who ride on Serres’ bus, told ABC News. “She can control them. She is their second mom when they’re on her bus. She’s just amazing. She does everything for these kids. She’s very loving and caring, and I love her. I am so grateful she is going to be our bus driver next year."
It all started when one of Lamon’s sons, Vincent Lamon, 10, dared Serres to make a crocheted taco after she had taught his older brother to crochet.
“His favorite food is tacos, so finally one day I said, ‘Fine, I’ll try to make it,’ and two days a later I think I had it done,” Serres, 43, recalled.
Once she finished the taco, most of the students on her route for Summit Elementary School in Oconomowoc wanted one. She went down the rows of kids and asked for their special orders.
“I made the taco and gave it to Vincent in the morning, and every student that got on after him -- he had to show them, and said, ‘Look what Mrs. Trudy made,'" said Serres.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Peggy Lamon said of the bus driver. “It’s not like she sits around all day, like she has nothing else to do. For her to take this time out for these kids, it shows what kind of woman she is.”
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"One day a boy came up to me and said, 'Mr. Stuckey, look at what my bus driver made me!' and he showed me his stuffed animal Trudy had created just for him," Summit elementary school principal Brian Stuckey added. "The boy was so proud and you could tell the pride he had in this little gift. The last few years we have been working to build connections and relationships between our school and our fabulous bus drivers and Trudy has taken that to a whole new level."
Now that school is out for summer, parents are telling Serres their kids are sleeping with the crocheted toys, taking them on vacation and even bringing them to church.
“My kids still sleep with them at night. They definitely love them and enjoy them,” John Londt said of his three kids who each received toys from Serres.
Londt wrote to the principal of the children’s school to praise the bus driver for going above and beyond with the kids.
“Throughout the year, Trudy has made each of the students that ride her bus a crocheted stuffed animal. She asked each child what character, color, etc. they would like and hand-made each of them an animal,” he wrote. “I cannot imagine how much time this would have taken her, but I know that she has made each child feel very special and loved.”
For Serres, the students’ reactions are her payment.
“They would gleam when they saw them,” she said. “I love children and to see their faces and their reactions -- that’s what makes my day,” she said.