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Local women deliver bus full of donations to tornado victims in Kentucky

By Paula O'Connell for The 3 min read
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Students at Marshall Elementary School donated book bags stuffed with school supplies to tornado victims in Kentucky.

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Laurel Highlands Middle School students help bus driver, Jessica Everly load a baby stroller onto a bus of donations for tornado victims in Mayfield, Kentucky.

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Jessica Everly (left) and Amy Keffer, drivers for First Student Bus Service, stand in front of a bus filled with donations. The women delivered the items to Mayfield, Kentucky, where a tornado killed dozens and destroyed homes and businesses.

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Scenes of destruction greeted First Student Bus Service drivers Amy Keffer and Jessica Everly when they arrived in Mayfield, Kentucky. The local woman organized a stuff-a-bus event and drove the donations to Mayfield, where a Dec. 10 tornado destroyed homes and killed dozens.

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A stuffed bus of donated goods for tornado victims in Kentucky was donated by Laurel Highlands School District students and staff, and delivered by bus drivers Amy Keffer and Jessica Everly.

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Volunteers in Mayfield, Kentucky, unload donations for tornado victims. The donations were collected in Fayette County.

Moved by the tragic scenes of those devastated by tornadoes in Mayfield, Kentucky, two local bus drivers called upon students and staff in the Laurel Highlands School District to help.

“Just hearing the heartbreak in the people’s voices and seeing it on the news made us want to do something,” said Amy Keffer, who along with Jessica Everly, drove a bus full of supplies to the fairgrounds in Mayfield, where a catastrophic tornado on Dec. 10 left dozens dead and destroyed buildings and homes.

Once the women came up with a plan to help, they called their supervisor, Phyllis Hudock, to pitch the idea.

Keffer asked for permission to drive her regular route school bus on the trip, and Hudock received permission from officials at First Student Bus Service, which paid for fuel for the 1,300-mile, 38-hour round trip.

The women are both drivers for Laurel Highlands, where building principals, teachers, students, their families and other community members rose to the occasion just after returning from winter break.

“We had a week and a half to gather everything together,” said L.H. Middle School Assistant Principal Bobbi Downs, who added that support from the community was outstanding. “The generosity of our students and staff is contagious. They demonstrate daily what it means to be a Better Mustang.”

Donors filled the bus with pillows, blankets, baby clothes and items, personal hygiene products, nonperishables and a baby stroller.

Students and staff at Marshall Elementary School donated book bags filled with school supplies.

Mindful of the weather, Keffer and Everly set off with the loaded bus on Jan. 14, just ahead of the winter storm that would dump the first significant snowfall of the season over Fayette County.

She and Everly sent their heartfelt thanks to the many people who helped to make it happen, including Karen Hull, who collected and stored many of the items.

Hull is the owner and operator of Saddles of Success/Against All Odds, a therapeutic riding program in Dunbar for special needs children. Many of the families who participate in the riding program also made donations.

“It was a group effort that showed if we all come together, we can really help people. It was all of us together, and it really does take a village,” Keffer said.

She and Everly took turns driving, making an overnight stop at a friend’s horse farm near Georgetown, Kentucky.

As they approached Mayfield, what they saw was “heart-wrenching,” Keffer said.

“To see something like that up close was an eye-opening experience. There were families who were living in tents in outdoor parks because they had nowhere else to go,” she said.

The drivers were met by many volunteers who unloaded the 14 and a half pallets, shrink wrapped the items, and carried them into a building for sorting. Families then came to the building to pick out whatever they needed.

“The first thing we unloaded off the bus was the baby stroller, and right there waiting was a lady with a baby in her arms, and holding a toddler by the hand,” Keffer said. “That’s what humanity is all about — giving to others.”

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