JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As the school year restarts, there will be hundreds of school buses on the roadways taking kids to where they need to go, but during the summer many of those buses are used for other activities.
Recently, a local bus company granted a very specific wish for a young man with a very specific area of interest.
Logan loves buses.
"That's the bus I rode to the airport," said Logan while showing someone a picture of a bus on his phone, "SARTA Bus 2001, a 2019 Gillig Advantage, power by compressed natural gas for CNG for short."
His love for buses is finetuned.
"I've loved school buses since I was four years old," said Logan.
After a recent trip to the Daytona 500, his mom said all Logan could talk about when they got back to their home in Ohio was the ride they took to the Daytona International Speedway on a bus. Specifically, Student Transportation of America IC bus 905. And he wanted to do it again.
"We have small buses, large buses, ESP buses, new buses, old buses, literally every type of bus there is, STA has," said Adrienne Jackson of Student Transportation of America.
"I was really looking to riding this bad boy or any of its brothers or sisters," said Logan, pointing to an IC bus.
So his mom contacted STA with a rather specific request. Could they charter one of the company's buses from Jacksonville to Daytona International Speedway?
"We have a very family-oriented environment here," Jackson said. "Logan's part of the family, if he wants to do something we're going to make it happen for him."
That included bringing along Dorothy, the driver of bus 905 who Logan's mom said was kind to her son with autism when he just wanted to talk about buses on a trip to Daytona.
"905 is the bus for Logan, so we made sure that we got his favorite bus too," said Jackson.
Logan was even given a bus-themed gift bag that included small model buses and shoes with bus designs.
"I'm just kind of blown away, this is crazy, above and beyond doesn't even cut it," said Logan's mom Gwnell McGrath, who is grateful that STA helped her son foster his love for buses.
"Thank you, just a huge thank you to STA and everybody who put this together, it's unbelievable," said McGrath, "truly a wonderful thing."
Next stop: Daytona Beach on STA bus 905.