Patty Reitz, aka ‘hat lady,” has been gifting students her homemade hats for the past 18 years.
A New York school bus driver crocheted hats for every one of her school bus kids for the past 18 years.
Patty Reitz, also known as the "hat lady," picked up crocheting as a hobby in 2005. She buys all the yarn and says it takes around an hour-and-a-half to make each hat.
She has provided hats for “7,088 heads, and still going,” Reitz tells Inside Edition.
The driver brings everything she needs on the bus and spends time crocheting while she waits for the suburban Buffalo school to let out. “I can’t sit still,” she says.
“It makes the children feel very special,” Harris Hill Elementary School Principal Robert Boccaccio tells Inside Edition. “It creates this community on the bus.”
Many of the kids love the homemade hats.
“I think it’s cool,” says one young student.
“I love her hats,” says another.
After many years and thousands of dollars spent on yarn, Reitz says the smiles on the kids’ faces make it all worth it.
“It’s my school bus family,” Reitz says.
