Girl Sitting in Dirt at Bus Stop Gets Surprise Bench From Homeowner–Camera Catches her Jig (WATCH).
Florida teachers Maren Douglass and her husband built a bench, and later a small lending library, for a high school student who waited for her school bus at the edge of their driveway.
Maren Douglass and her husband, both teachers in Florida, built a bench for a high school student who waited for her school bus at the edge of their driveway, according to an exclusive interview with PEOPLE.
The couple first noticed the girl on Sept. 1, while Douglass's husband was in the hospital for cancer treatment. A notification from their home camera system reported movement in the driveway, and the live feed showed a girl sitting there. Douglass said it happened every day for the four days they were in the hospital that week. The school district had set the girl's bus stop based on her address down the road, and the couple worried because the road is busy and leads up to a stop sign where drivers sometimes go fast.
While still at the hospital, the couple ordered a bench online. After they returned home, they assembled it themselves and placed it within view of their security cameras, which gave them and the girl's family some reassurance. They chained it to a nearby basketball pole so no one would think it had been thrown away. Douglass said the neighborhood is not dangerous.
The girl found the bench the following Monday. Douglass described her reaction as "just her little jumps." The girl later left a handwritten note thanking the couple and saying she no longer had to worry about dirt and bugs.
After noticing that the girl often read while she waited, Douglass spent a long weekend building and painting a small library box to sit beside the bench. Other neighborhood children have since begun borrowing and returning books. The couple also added an umbrella for rainy mornings and left out some of the girl's favorite snacks. The girl recently gave them two homemade cookies in return.
Douglass posted a TikTok video about the bench that has passed 14 million views and 30,000 comments. She said some commenters suggested many people would have reacted unkindly to a child on their property. "She's just an awesome kid, and she deserves all the kindness," Douglass said. She added that "it really doesn't take much" to make a difference.
Note: The headline describes a single homeowner and a girl's "jig." The page says a married couple built the bench, and it describes the girl's reaction as "little jumps." It also says the girl waited at the edge of the driveway, and the dirt is mentioned only in her thank-you note.
At a Glance
- The couple first saw the girl on their camera feed on Sept. 1, while at the hospital for the husband's cancer treatment.
- The girl waited at the edge of their driveway for four straight mornings before the bench was built.
- The bench was chained to a basketball pole, and a handmade library box was later added beside it.
- Douglass's TikTok video about the bench has more than 14 million views and over 30,000 comments.
Sources
This brief was written by Brightside Report from the reporting linked above. Spot an error? Request a correction.