Cool thing to do

Driver delivers Popsicles and pizza to stranded bus

Kids stranded in hot weather get treats from a stranger.

Most drivers ignored the broken-down bus on Interstate 95, filled with 40 teens and six adults stranded in searing heat for more than two hours. Not Linda Sanders. The 36-year-old financial adviser from Delray Beach was out to buy shoes, but had a change in plans after noticing the bus on the side of the highway in Boca Raton.

She drove to Publix for 48 bottles of water and 60 Popsicles, then headed back to the bus to deliver them to the thirsty teens, their bus driver and five chaperones. Sanders left before they had a chance to get her name.

The kids, who were part of Hallandale Beach’s Teen Zone summer program, were returning from Rapids Water Park in West Palm Beach last week when their bus broke down.

They didn’t realize it at the time, but Sanders had driven off to buy them 11 cheese pizzas. But just as she was getting back to them with the food, she saw them pulling away in a new bus.

So she did what any good Samaritan would do.

Sanders, who spent around $85 on the pizza, water and Popsicles, followed the bus for 30 miles back to Hallandale Beach.

And for that she will get a “Random Act of Kindness” award Wednesday at a Hallandale Beach City Hall meeting.

“She’s just the sweetest thing,” said Parks Director Cathie Schanz. “She said, ‘Those kids need water and Popsicles more than I need shoes.’ ”

Sanders, a former teacher who grew up in Pennsylvania, was surprised by the attention. She doesn’t think what she did was all that unusual.

“The heat index was over 100 degrees, something insane,” she said. “I see all these kids on the bus. They looked miserable.” She was right. Gabrielle Clarke, 17, of Hallandale Beach,

says it was almost like being in a sauna.

She couldn’t believe someone they’d never met would bring them water and ice pops, then follow them 30 miles to handdeliver pizza. So she told her mom all about it.

“My mom was like, ‘The Lord is going to bless her for helping us out,’ ” she said.

Rushayne Daley, 16, of Fort Lauderdale, says he’ll never forget Sanders.

“She had somewhere to go, but took the time to help us out,” he said.

CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH/COURTESY Forty teens were stranded in a bus along I-95 in Boca when Delray Beach resident Linda Sanders drove by and noticed them sweltering. She came to the rescue with water and Popsicles.

RANDY VAZQUEZ/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Linda Sanders, with her dogs Simba, left, and Cocoa, says she doesn’t think she did anything all that special.