From pick up to drop off, the Daviess County Public Schools Transportation Department takes their job of transporting school children very seriously. While most people associate bus drivers and monitors with maintaining order and ensuring the safety of hundreds of DCPS children, recently, several members of the transportation department transformed into carpenters and installers for one family in need.
Carly Roby is a half-day second-grade student at Country Heights Elementary School. Now, 8 years old, Carly was born with SOX2 anophthalmia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by abnormal development of the eyes and other parts of the body. Carly was born without eyes and now has two custom-made prosthetic eyes in place. Carly is also small for her age and cannot talk or walk, instead, her mother Carla said she “babbles” and “smiles most of the time” and requires the use of a wheelchair.
“My daughter can’t hold her head up very well, so I had to hold her head and the door at the same time,” Carla said of trying to get Carly out of the door and to the bus each day.
Add to that struggle the addition of a few small stairs outside of the door and a newer, heavier wheelchair for Carla to maneuver in and out of the house.
Jackie Humphrey and Teresa Grimley serve as the bus driver and monitor for Carly’s neighborhood. Recently, Teresa came back to the bus garage voicing concern she had for Carly and her mother.
“Teresa said this mother shouldn’t have this struggle because the student is only getting bigger and the mom is getting older,” said Tina Gerteisen, DCPS transportation driver trainer. “She said, ‘My husband and I can fix this.’”
Teresa and her husband Joseph set to work constructing a wheelchair ramp leading from Carly’s front door into the yard, and Humphrey helped them install it.
“It makes it a lot easier to get in and out of the house and the front door,” Carla said. “Teresa and Mr. Jack love her — they just wanted to do it to be helpful. She’s always laughing on the bus with them; she’s a happy girl. She loves going to school and getting on the bus and they said she gets all excited to get back on the bus to come home.”
Although Teresa and her husband stressed that they did not want any special recognition for the assistance they provided, Gerteisen said, “You can see the size of her heart when she talks — you really can.”
“It took that one spark — that one moment — to watch that parent struggle that made Teresa stop and think, ‘We can do something,’” Gerteisen said. “We see where we take these children and where we pick them up from. This time we had a chance to change something.”
