An act of kindness by school bus driver Larry Farrish Jr. is touching the hearts of people across the country.
Farrish Jr., who drives buses in Louisville, Kentucky, recently noticed a little boy named Levi was having a rough morning.
The 35-year-old told Today that when he came to pick up the first grader who attends Engelhard Elementary School, the usually upbeat student was in a downhearted mood, which was unlike him, so he asked him about it.
“Normally when I pull up, he’s standing there waiting for me with a big smile, but on this day, he was sitting on the ground with a jacket over his head,” Farrish Jr. told the outlet. “I asked him, ‘Hey buddy, what’s going on? What’s wrong?’”
Levi looked up at him with “a face full of tears” and explained he didn’t have pajamas for “pajama day” at school, according to a press release by Jefferson County Public Schools.
“It hurt me so bad,” Farrish said. “That just wasn’t my Levi, and I wanted him to have a good day. No child should have to miss out on something as small as pajama day.”
After dropping Levi off at school and completing his morning bus run, Farrish went to a nearby Family Dollar store and picked up a few pairs of pajamas in various sizes before returning to school to ask Levi if he could come down after school.
“I saw Levi coming down the hall, and he had a face just as happy as could be,” Farrish said. “It really turned the whole Friday around, for him and for me,”he said in the news release.
Levi said in the release that he was thankful for his bus driver for doing a kind deed. “I can tell Mr. Larry is nice and his heart is filled with joy,” he said. “I’m usually really happy, but not on pajama day…When he got me the pajamas, I did a happy cry.”
Having worked as a correctional officer and a truck driver before becoming a bus driver, Farrish Jr. said that being a bus driver for the past seven years has been the most fulfilling job he’s ever had.
“They become my kids after they leave their parents,” Farrish told school officials. “I make sure they get to and from school safe, but I also try to bring some type of joy to their lives.”
Farrish called the attention he’s received “overwhelming” and “touching.” He is not very active on social media, he said. But just like he went out of his way to help Levi, Farrish said people have gone out of their way to contact him and let him know “the impact he’s had—not just on Levi—but on many of the students he’s driven throughout the years.”
“For people to actually be able to find me and reach out on behalf of such a small gesture, it made me cry,” Farrish said. “It feels good knowing I made an impact on a child’s life.”
