Photos courtesy of Jamie Mohr

By Rebecca Gaunt

The Cobb community came together Friday afternoon to recognize the people in charge of transporting their children to and from school safely.

Volunteers distributed 1,100 thank you gifts at multiple transportation locations as staff finished their final shift of the year. 

“The goal was simple: appreciation. Bus drivers, monitors, and mechanics are often the first and last school employees our kids see each day, yet they’re rarely recognized. We wanted to make sure they felt seen, valued, and thanked, not just with words, but with a little something tangible,” said parent organizer Jamie Mohr.

Several local businesses contributed to the effort: Integrity Home Loans, McDonald’s (Waterfront, Sandy Plains, Roswell Road, and Lower Roswell Road locations), Chick-Fil-A at Woodlawn, Chick-Fil-A at Barrett Parkway and 830 Barrett Parkway, Chick-Fil-A at 2555 Dallas Hwy., Firehouse Subs on Sandy Plains, Kroger at Shallowford, and Geno Campbell-Mobile Barber (The Cut).

Other donors included Amanda Stuart, Maya Pounds, Susanna Roesel, Dena Kwasek, and Cheryl Oliver. One contributor did so from Ohio in honor of her late father who was a bus driver.

Parents Laura McDade, Micheal Garza, Heather Tolley-Bauer, and Sandy Ehman manned the four locations where they greeted Cobb County School District transportation staff with big smiles. 

Mohr’s children don’t ride the bus, but they wave to the drivers every day during the walk to school.

“A few years ago, I was talking to my kids about how small acts of kindness don’t disappear; they ripple outward. I told them that we never really die because the kindness we put into the world continues through others, almost like a swirling wind that keeps moving forward.

“That same morning, when we reached school property, a bus driver opened the door and yelled, ‘You’re beautiful.’ I replied, ‘You are too.’ My kids watched in amazement that what I said came true right before their eyes. The kindness they gave came right back to them,” Mohr said.