Every year, Northwest Allen County Schools’ transportation department “adopts” families of employees who need some extra help during the holidays.
NACS transportation director Natalie Hoffman donned a full Christmas outfit, complete with jingling elf slippers, to deliver gifts to Maple Creek Middle School.
For six years, the transportation department has created a giving tree for employees who need some help during the holidays. The employees are nominated by their fellow coworkers and then a wish list is created.
Bus drivers, mechanics, office staff and some school administrators help buy the gifts.
“It’s a way for us to give back to the NACS community that has given us so much, because it takes a village to make our department really successful.” Hoffman said.
Gifts are gathered beneath a tree at the transportation department building behind Maple Creek. On the day of the drop off, they’re loaded onto a school bus – this particular one decorated to look like a reindeer – and delivered to the front office of each of four schools in the district.
Hoffman said she’s not surprised by the giving spirit from her department.
“It takes a big heart and a lot of caring personalities to be a bus driver," she said. "So, when it comes time to give back, it’s not even a question in our minds, we just want to do it.”
