Students Renovate School Bus for Teacher’s Daughter

It took 6 weeks for high school students to transform a dilapidated school bus into Gabrielle’s dream playhouse. Gabrielle is the daughter of Amy Howell, a high school health care teacher in Westmoreland, Tennessee. Howell told her class about her daughter’s unusual Christmas wish list and jokingly asked, “Do you know anybody who’s got an old bus or van?” She never imagined her students making her wish come true.

Gabrielle has a rare brain disorder called bilateral periventricular nodular heterotopia (PVNH), which prevents her brain from developing normally and sometimes leaves her “stuck mentally at 3 years old.”

With the help of many donations through a GoFundMe page, the truck was towed, wheels were replaced, the inside was carpeted and the entire bus was painted inside and out, reading “Gabby’s School Bus.” The newly transformed school bus was delivered to Howell’s property on Christmas Eve with Santa inside to personally give Gabby the only gift she asked for. See the story here.