November 15, 2020 – West Bend, WI – Crossing guard Bonnie Weston, 57, of West Bend is hanging up her whistle and reflective vest and calling it a career.
“This would be my 39th year as a crossing guard and I’ve been on the corner of Jefferson Street and Green Tree Road for 37 years,” Weston said.
Prior to that, she worked two years on the corner of Kilbourn Avenue and Indiana Avenue.
“My mother, Delores Rosbeck, used to have that corner but in 1981 she was in ill health and asked if I wanted it,” said Weston. “I thought it would be fun so I took it over.”
Weston said she does it for the kids. “I don’t have any of my own and it’s just being outside and it’s fun watching them grow up. Right now I have kids of the kids I crossed years ago,” she said.
Some of the excitement over the years included a horse that escaped a nearby farm and ran up behind her on Jefferson Street. “Another time a car turned the corner on Green Tree and a child flew out onto the street,” she said. “The mom stopped the vehicle, the child wasn’t hurt, he got back in and they took off.”
Weston, dressed in a fluorescent lime green hat and vest, 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.”
In 2015 the Optimist Club recognized Weston with as Crossing Guard of the Year.