This is Crossing Guard Awareness Week in West Bend. A proclamation by Mayor Kraig Sadownikow read, “West Bend is proud of our school crossing guards and commend them highly for their continued commitment to the safety and well-being of our children.”
Last June the West Bend Optimist Club recognized Bonnie Weston, 52, as the Crossing Guard of the Year.
Weston has been a crossing guard in the community for 35 years. She got her start in 1981 when her mother, Delores Rosbeck, fell ill and could not work as a crossing guard at her corner on Kilbourn and Indiana Avenue.
Weston stepped in and she’s been safely getting kids across the street ever since.
“I’ve been on the corner of Jefferson Street and Green Tree Road for 32 years,” Weston said. “I don’t have any kids of my own and it’s just being outside and it’s fun watching them grow up. Right now I have kids of kids I crossed,” she said.
Weston works the corner at Green Tree and Jefferson Street where she’s seen some excitement over the years including a horse that escape a nearby farm.
“It ran up the road right behind me,” Weston said. “Made it all the way to Highway 45 before anybody caught it.”
Weston also witnessed a child fly out of a car that turned the corner on Green Tree. “The mom stopped the vehicle, the child wasn’t hurt, he got back in and they took off,” she said.
Dressed in a fluorescent lime green hat and vest, Weston comes armed with a whistle and hand-held stop sign. She’s vigilant and arrives at her corner early.
“These kids are like part of my family,” she said. “Untied shoelaces are my big pet peeve. I help them because I don’t want them tripping in the road.”
Sergeant Tracey Hetebrueg was the one who nominated Weston for School Crossing Guard of the Year. That award was presented last June at Riverside Brewery.