Nancy Rowell hangs up her vest and stop sign after 27 years
June 23 marked the end of the 2020-21 school year for children across Quebec, but it was also the
end of an era at the corner of College and Parkdale streets in Lennoxville as Nancy Rowell, who has been the local crossing guard for 27 years, finished her last day.
As a surprise to their neighbourhood crossing guard, several local parents made the trip to the corner of College and Parkdale with their children on Wednesday morning.
“Nancy is an institution in Lennoxville,” shared Jessica Riddell, whose children Sophie and Henry cross the busy road each morning. “She makes our kids safe and also makes them smile - a rare and beautiful combination. She is a key member of the learning eco-system as an educator.
Her smile sets the tone in the morning, soothes tears in the afternoon, and points us all in the right direction.”
“Nancy makes every child feel special,” added Melinda Enns, mother of Avery and Eric. “She knows each one by name, and come rain or come shine, she greets them with a warm smile and a kind word. Thank you, Nancy, and happy retirement!”
“We never had to worry about our kids, because we knew Nancy was there, looking out for them,” said Leigh Hortop-di Mascio, thinking of her children Luca and Elio. “We’ll miss her so much!”
“(Nancy’s) dedication has kept thousands of kids safe over the years,” reflected Mary Sweeny. “It won’t be the same walk to school without her.”
“It was very, very nice,” Rowell said of the small celebration, sharing that it was a complete surprise. “Normally the kids walk by themselves, and suddenly here were all these parents walking with them.”
Rowell shared that she sees about 50 or 60 children every weekday morning and a somewhat smaller group in the afternoon as children make their way to Saint-antoine or Lennoxville elementary schools.
Asked about what inspired her to take on the job, she said that that the idea came up when her own children were starting elementary school.
“The girl that was doing the job said that she was leaving, and it seemed to me that it was a good job for a parent with children in elementary school,” Rowell said, pointing out that the hours and time off generally line up well with the school schedule. Having made that decision she walked down to what was then the Lennoxville Town Hall, said she was interested, and more or less got the job on the spot.
Over the time since, the crossing guard has seen the street names and municipality she is working for change around her, but Rowell said that the biggest change to her work came just within the last few years.
“I noticed an immediate difference on the day they opened the first part of the 410,” she said.
“That Monday it was 100 per cent quieter.”
With a reduction in the heavy truck traffic on her part of the street, Rowell said that almost all the drivers calmed down significantly.
“The cars seem to be in a little bit less of a great screaming rush,” she said, noting that when she does still encounter the occasional pushy driver, she has no qualms about making them wait in the name of keeping the kids safe.
Looking ahead to her retirement, Rowell said that she will miss talking to the children each day but also that she is looking forward to really being able to enjoy the last days of summer on her own schedule.
“I’m not going to miss the first week of August, when school starts before summer is over,” she said with a laugh.