Photo courtesy of Allison Carpenter
Six students from Hoover City Schools get a ride to school in the Hoover Police Department's Bearcat armored rescue vehicle on Monday, May 13, 2024, after their parents won the ride with an $800 donation at an auction put on by the Hoover City Schools Foundation on April 19, 2024. Students who made the ride were, from left, 16-year-old Carter Carpenter from Hoover High, 14-year-old Caleb Carpenter from Bumpus Middle, 12-year-old Eliza Carpenter from Bumpus Middle, 18-year-old Ashlyn Bottom from Hoover High, 11-year-old Alexander Bottom from Trace Crossings Elementary and 14-year-old Katelyn Bottom from Bumpus Middle.
Six students from Hoover schools got a ride to school this morning in the Hoover Police Department’s Bearcat armored rescue vehicle.
They won the ride in an auction at the Hoover City Schools Foundation Denim and Dining fundraiser on April 19, with an $800 donation split between two families.
“It was really cool, and I liked it a lot,” 11-year-old Alexander Bottom said after being dropped off at Trace Crossings Elementary School. “It makes me want to be on the SWAT team.”
Riding with Alexander were his 14-year-old and 18-year-old sisters, Katelyn and Ashlyn.
Katelyn, an eighth grader at Bumpus Middle School, said the Bearcat was a lot bigger than she anticipated.
The Bottoms shared the ride with 12-year-old Eliza Carpenter, 14-year-old Caleb Carpenter — also students at Bumpus — and 16-year-old Carter Carpenter, who attends Hoover High.
All six students met up at the Hoover Police Department’s Frank and Pam Barefield Training Center on Municipal Drive, where the Bearcat is stored, at 7 a.m. to start their journey. Before departing, they and their parents got a chance to check out the Police Department’s various specialty vehicles, including the dive team’s boat, an officer transport vehicle and mobile command center. They also took turns firing a training gun used in the department’s virtual reality firearms training simulator.
All six students said they’d never had a chance to ride in an armored rescue vehicle before, much less get a ride to school in it.
The Bearcat ride wasn’t actually part of the plan for the April 19 auction. But after police Chief Nick Derzis auctioned off two rides to school in the department’s seized Porsche for $450 each, Nick Bussey, the boyfriend of the Carpenter kids’ mom, Allison Carpenter, came up with the idea to ask for a Bearcat ride.
He and James Bottom made the $800 offer, and the police chief and Mayor Frank Brocato agreed to let the kids do it. Brocato was at the police training center to greet the students and parents before they made the journey.
Eliza Carpenter said she was super-excited about it and thankful for the opportunity.
Capt. Chuck McDonald first drove the students to Bumpus Middle School, where three attend, and then pulled up at the front of Trace Crossings Elementary, where Alexander goes. The high school students, who weren’t part of the original deal, got out at the other schools and made their way on to Hoover High by other means.
