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A long, long time ago, I was proud to be on duty at the corner of Strathmillan and Bruce, guarding the crosswalk by my elementary school in St. James.
I was armed with a bright orange safety patrol belt and a sense of purpose that could cut through any winter windchill.
Based on some rough math, I was probably part of the 40th edition of the flagship road safety program, which began in Winnipeg in 1936.
Fast-forward to this year, which will mark the 90th anniversary of the initiative that sees kids helping keep kids safe in school zones — and an article from Maggie Macintosh, our education reporter. As Maggie caught up with students from Isaac Brock School, she asked what motivated them to check in daily for their shifts, even when it’s -25 C.
“I like keeping people safe when they cross the street,” Georgia, 10, told Maggie after shedding her CAA vest and hanging it on a hook in her school’s front lobby on a recent weekday.
While Georgia’s safety vest is generations flashier than mine, her answer meshed with how I would have responded to that question — the same, no doubt, as thousands of others who have been school patrols over the years.
School patrols Mariah (left) and Oliver demonstrate what they would usually do at Isaac Brock School as safety patrol members. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press)
Newsrooms tend to pay attention to what is wrong in our world because that’s often how news is defined. A fatal car crash gets ink, while an incident-free day around my old elementary school or Isaac Brock does not.
But that doesn’t mean newsrooms ignore what is right in the world — especially when what is right is helping respond to the road safety issues in our city that have made headlines. That’s why Maggie’s story landed on Monday’s front page as students returned to school after the holidays.
Like many of you, I was proud to be a school patrol member. I was proud my three kids also donned the safety vest. And I was proud the Free Press could deliver a story on school patrols 90 years in the making.
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