Three generations of one family help Isle of Wight kids get to school

ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, Va. (WAVY) – Three generations of one Isle of Wight County family are working to get kids to and from school everyday.

Anderson Wrenn is known all across the district.

He’s been driving for 21 years and just celebrated his 85th birthday March 6.

“Driving a bus is what you make it,” Wrenn said.

Wrenn says he didn’t always see himself as a bus driver, but after he retired, the transportation director kept asking him to get behind the wheel.

“Every time he’d see me he’d say, ‘Mr. Wrenn I need you to drive a bus,’ and I said, ‘Man, I’m not driving a bus,” Wrenn said.

But then, he gave in.

“The first day I had children on the bus I told them look I’m gonna be your driver,” Wrenn said, “and I said if you want to get along I said you’ve got to act right with me and I’ll act right with y’all.”

And 21 years later, he’s still picking up kids.

Two years ago, he even recruited his daughter, Daisy, to drive a bus too.

“My dad was like, come back and drive for Isle of Wight County. We need you,” said Daisy Bacon.

So naturally, Daisy then brought her sister Rose on board.

“It’s so nice to see each other everyday,” said Rose Cutler.

Then Rose talked her son, Antonio, into applying to be a mechanic to work on the buses.

“When they come up here to gas up or they gotta drop something off because they’ve got an issue, I can fix it,” said Antonio Cutler.

So three generations, all working together, to serve Isle of Wight County kids.

“Hearing them on the radio and passing them on the road, you’re waving at your family,” Daisy Bacon said.

“We are always together,” Rose Cutler said. “We’re all together when we’re not at work.”

Coordinator of Transportation Kyle Blackwell said he’s got quite a few families working for him, but three generations of one family at the same time is a first.

“It’s wonderful,” Blackwell said. “They account for each other, they show what it is to be home grown and working for a company together.”

Wrenn said it’s been truly rewarding driving for as long as he has, and his daughters and grandson say it’s incredible to think about all the lives he’s touched.

“It makes me very proud to see that he can reach so many people in just driving a bus back and forth to school,” Antonio Cutler said.

“There’s a bunch of people that think real highly of me for driving the children and I think real highly of the children because I love them,” Wrenn said.