School bus drivers may never know the kind of impact they have on their young passengers.

But thanks to a nationwide essay contest, one driver in Orange County recently learned he's made quite an impression on a certain fourth grader at New Hope Elementary.

"My bus driver, Mr. Sam McBroom, is the best because he's always in a good mood even when children break the rules. He's been the best bus driver that I could ever imagine, since I moved to North Carolina. This year Mr. Sam was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He didn't want to miss driving the bus so he takes his treatments every other Friday. That way he'll be sick on the weekends and not when he's supposed to be driving the bus. He's awesome."

That was the essay Chase Kimball submitted after hearing about the Thomas Built Buses' Driver of the Year essay contest in school.

Earning second place in the national contest, McBroom never imagined the impact he might have on the kids he's shuttled back and forth until now.

"You never know each day that goes by that someone is watching us. And when someone is watching, sometimes we make a difference in their lives and sometimes we don't even know it," said McBroom.

Mr. Sam tells us he's won Orange County's School Bus Driver of the Year two years in a row, but says this latest honor is something special.

"It's an honor for me to know that a young child is noticing that I'm doing something right," said McBroom.

In addition to winning runner up in the Driver of the Year contest, last month the Orange County School Board also recognized driver Sam McBroom.