Four named Chicago’s ‘Crossing Guard of the Year’

CHICAGO — Four Chicago Public Schools employees named ‘Crossing Guard of the Year’ at a midday Monday ceremony include one guard who took home an award last year and another who has gained local notoriety with her energy and dance moves.

Tammy Anderson, Jacobo Araujo, Kimberly Dukes and Gwenette Scott were among the roughly 700 crossing guards recognized at Malcolm X College on Crossing Guard Appreciation Day, celebrated each May in Illinois to recognize crossing guards for keeping students safe as they commute to and from school.

“Kids need to see a smiling face, no matter what kind of day they are having,” said Scott, who was also among those recognized last year. She calls her students her ‘babies,’ adding that they brighten her day as they tell her about theirs. “If I can make them smile, that’s wonderful.”

The guards can be nominated by anyone and are selected for their perfect attendance, their professionalism and their connection to the community.

“I just go to work and do my job and be the best that I can do. I was not thinking I’m gonna win an award today. Oh my goodness that is awesome,” said Anderson, who dances while helping students to and from Beasley Academic Center in the city’s Washington Park neighborhood.

Just two years on the job, Araujo has already earned the respect and the honor at his near west side post for Pulaski International School of Chicago.

“It’s very important for me. It’s very important,” he said Monday. “I am very very happy and very pleased to do this job because I help the community.”

For winners like Dukes, who “loves” her job, the recognition is appreciated for the work they do in all types of weather.

“I’m keeping my teachers safe, my children safe, the parents safe,” she said. “And whoever need to be crossed, I will cross them.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson, just days away from completing his first full year in office, called the guards a safe space for kids.

“You all are showing up for the families who, in some instances, don’t have safe spaces. Where mothers and fathers and grandparents and aunts and uncles and older siblings rely upon you, and that goes for me as well,” he said.

Each of the guards recognized Monday will receive a small bonus.

While Crossing Guard Appreciation Day is an annual event, this is the first May marked as Crossing Guard Appreciation Month.

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