LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Twenty Jefferson County Public Schools' (JCPS) buses stuffed with items, from diapers to dog food, left Louisville Tuesday morning en route to Glendale. 

What You Need To Know

  • Last week, the Jefferson County community donated enough necessities to stuff 20 JCPS school buses.

  • “Stuff the Bus,” the initiative aims to help Western Kentuckians affected by the tornadoes

  • The buses rolled out Tuesday morning headed to Glendale. The donated items were stored at the old East Hardin Middle School

  • The old middle school is serving as a storage/staging area for the donated supplies

 

Called “Stuff the Bus,” the initiative aims to help Western Kentuckians affected by the tornadoes by providing necessities they may have lost during the Dec. 11, 2021 violent storms. Two additional school buses, packed with JCPS volunteers who unloaded the donated stuff, also rolled out. 

The JCPS school buses were unloaded at the old East Hardin Middle School in Glendale. JCPS spokesperson, Mark Hebert, said in an email to media outlets that the old middle school is serving as a storage and staging area for the donated supplies to make them available whenever Western Kentuckians affected by the tornadoes need them in the future. 

JCPS employees, like school bus driver Doug Ash, drove down the supplies Tuesday.

“This is the first time for this. This is awesome; it’s nice to be able to help out,” Ash, who has driven for JCPS for 14 years, said.

“These are supplies that they desperately need, Christmas presents that kids deserve, you know, they are suffering, and we are Kentuckians, and we are always going to help each other out. If this happened to us, I’m sure they’d help us out,” Ash told Spectrum News 1.

Just over a week prior, on Monday, JCPS called out to the Jefferson County community to donate nonperishable items. 

JCPS spokesperson, Renee Murphy, told Spectrum News 1 last week the district thought it would be able to stuff one bus. However, in total 20 buses were packed with donated items by Friday last week.

JCPS’s “Stuff the Bus” also had two additional buses packed with JCPS employee volunteers, which followed the 20 school buses full of supplies, who helped unload all of the donated items in Glendale.

All JCPS school bus drivers also volunteered their time. 

“Yeah, we got a lot of paper towels, looks like diapers, and I see some LAY'S® potato chips, and crackers, just a little bit of everything, things that people need,” Ash said while looking in the rearview mirror at the items loaded in his bus.

“You really don’t understand the necessities you need in life, you know, the small things,” Ash said. “You know, we take for granted, we want all the big things, we want the fancy cars and fancy houses and stuff, but when it comes down to it, we really just need the necessities in life.”

Like all other JCPS employees volunteering for “Stuff the Bus,” Ash is also on his winter break, but he says he can’t think of any better way to spend it. 

“My heart goes out to these people that have been devastated, that have lost their houses and homes,” Ash said. “Shout out to everybody that donated. This is all because of you all … we are just transporting it to him, and it’s an honor to do that and look forward to doing it.”

During the holidays, it’s all about the spirit of giving. In this case, Kentuckians giving to fellow Kentuckians.

JCPS isn’t the only school bus caravan taking donated items to Western Kentucky to help with tornado recovery. On Monday, over 60 school buses traveled from Morehead and Winchester to Morgantown, Ky. to help Western Kentuckians affected by the tornadoes. 

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