For 52 years, he’s been there for the kids
COVID-19 keeps students from farewell, but retiring janitor will be remembered
KITCHENER — Sadly there are no kids at school to say goodbye to Wayne Lantz. Blame the pandemic. But he is cherished.
Lantz retired Friday after 52 years as a public school janitor.
He’s been the go-to guy for retrieving lost balls from the roof. He fixes broken toys that children bring to school. He crafted a cart out of wood to safely haul ukuleles from class to class.
He remembers students and their names and parents. Some parents remember him when they were kids at the school.
Lantz, 70, was raised on a farm and started working as a high school custodian in 1968. He was 18. He has been at John Darling Public School since it opened in 1988. Everyone knows him as a sweet man with a smile and a kind word.
There’s a shiny Buddy Bench that carries his name where kids sit and wait for friends to join them.
The school installed it by the playground to celebrate his 50 years of service.
When the school held a superhero day, students Cole Bourassa and Karson Price dressed up as Mr. Lantz.
“I look up to him. He is always friendly and works really hard,” says Cole, 9.
He knows Mr. Lantz as the man who fixes desks and puts up the basketball net and fixed a student’s broken shoe and a student’s broken glasses.
“He’s a very kind and caring guy,” said Karson, 12. Mr. Lantz rescued Karson’s tennis ball from the roof over and over without getting mad at him.
Lantz recalls meeting a girl who told him she was new to the school. “Whereabouts did you come from?” he asked.
“I’m from Egypt,” she said. “I just
moved here to Canada.”
“Well that’s nice,” he said. “You came all the way here just so you could come to this school and meet me.” They laughed and laughed.
“I always talk to a lot to the kids,” he explains.
Sitting on his namesake bench, Lantz reflects on his career as a custodian.
The job kept him busy. He likes to be busy. He is a single man and the kids at school have kept his heart young.
He looks across the empty schoolyard. It is quiet but for chirping birds. He gathers his thoughts.
“Time goes faster than you realize,” he says. “I will miss the school and the kids.”
Now he hopes to travel. Help out at his brother’s two farms. Work more with wood. Maybe volunteer. Stay busy.
Godspeed, Mr. Lantz. You’ve earned it.
Jeff Outhit is a Waterloo Region-based general assignment reporter for the Record. Reach him via email: jouthit@therecord.com