Florida Transportation Team Gets Creative for Parade

PLANT CITY, Fla. — You’ve heard of a gingerbread house, but how about a gingerbread "mobile home"?

That’s an apt description for the creative float — towed by a school bus, no less — that the transportation team at Hillsborough County (Fla.) Public Schools crafted for the Plant City Christmas Parade on Dec. 2.

Jim Beekman, the district’s general manager of transportation, said that about 100 school bus drivers and attendants, along with other district staff members, showed up to walk with the bus and the float. Also, Hillsborough school board members and some students got to ride in the rolling gingerbread home during the festive parade.

Hillsborough County Public Schools, based in Tampa, runs about 943 school bus routes with 91,000 students assigned.