"I knew it was going to work."
Estella
in Spanish means star. Former Palm Beach
County, Fla., educator Estella Pyfrom shines brightly indeed. When Pyfrom, 78,
retired after 50 years serving in roles such as teacher, guidance counselor, and
summer school principal, she wasn’t ready for a rocking chair.
Instead, she bought a bus she dubbed
“Estella’s Brilliant us,” remodeled it,
and
loaded it with computers. Then she sat in its driver’s seat and started
steering it to local neighborhoods where children didn’t have computers for
math, reading, or social studies at home or transportation to get to them.
“Kids call me ‘the gadget lady,’”
said Pyfrom. She now has two buses, which she takes on educational field trips
to the midwest. “Estella’s Brilliant Bus is a big gadget with a mission on a
movement,” she added
Pyfrom’s not alone in her odyssey. Microsoft,
Wells Fargo, Comcast, Office Depot, and dozens of Florida organizations are
supporting her efforts. CNN named her a Top 10 Hero in 2013, calling her a
“community crusader.”
"I
paid for that bus"
Her goal? “To be able to connect
with bus companies that in some way can assist me with this mission.” There’s
more: “My destination,” she said, “is to have a bus not just in every city in the
U.S. but also across the world.”
Pyfrom knows all about beating the
odds. Her parents
were migrant farm workers. She began picking beans alongside them when she was six years old as her
family moved from farm to farm, from Florida to New York. Later, her father became a contractor,
operating trucks and buses, and that’s how Pyfrom as a youngster learned to handle a big
vehicle.
“I paid for
that bus with all my pennies,” she said. “To get the first bus on the road and to
continue to move forward, I’ve spent more than a million dollars.” cost has
never deterred her.
“I knew it was
going to work,” she explained. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken the risk. You
have to start out knowing that God is on your side and realize that you’re
going to have some temporary setbacks because with God on your side and your
own determination, failure is not an option. You are going to make it.”
MORAL:
Accelerate.
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