PARK RIDGE—A crossing guard who helped safely cross students thousands of times over 51 years of service was honored by the Park Ridge Police Department June 23 during a ceremony where they named an intersection she long guarded in her honor.
Officers from the Park Ridge Police Department proclaimed the corner of Ridge Avenue and South First Street “Renata Guiglia Way.”
“I was floored, let me tell you. I was absolutely beside myself. I worked quite some time for them and I really enjoyed my work. I loved my kids, they were little angels. I miss them terribly,” Guiglia told Pascack Press.
Guiglia, 82, from Montvale, said she loved her job safely crossing local students but noted “some people are nuts the way they drive” and said she reported “quite a few” errant or careless drivers to local police.
She said many of the distracted drivers were “on their phones” and not paying attention despite her reflective orange vest and safety cones.
She said often parents told her that their kids listened to her better than they listened to them. She said kindness and listening to kids was important and part of her daily routine.
“They [the PRPD] said that ‘We really miss you and you did an excellent job.’ I really do miss it terribly too now,” she said, reflecting on retirement.
She said some kids still text her and keep in touch following her many years of service as a crossing guard.
She said a knee problem, which restricts her mobility, led her, with regret, to retire.
The department honored Guiglia for her decades of community service, with much of that time crossing students of West Ridge Elementary School at the corner of Ridge Avenue and South First Street.
Police Capt. Joseph Rampolla told Pascack Press, “Renata never missed work and braved the elements for so many dedicated years. The kids she crossed eventually grew up and got married and Renata would soon cross the former West Ridge students’ children.”
A friend of Guiglia’s, Joanna Finnegan, a resident of Ridge Avenue who has known Guiglia for more than three decades, said Guiglia is “a wonderful, kind person and very dedicated who hardly missed a day in all her years.” Finnegan, who attended the ceremony, said the street dedication “was wonderful. She’s such a good person and I know myself that she’s been at that intersection for at least 30 years.”
Finnegan said Guiglia had crossed her children back in the day and that Guiglia told her she considered the honor and ceremony—which out of modesty she was reluctant to attend—“probably the best day of my life, and she was totally surprised.”
She said that Guiglia was given a police escort to the ceremony.
And, Finnegan, recalled, Guiglia often offered the kids lollipops and various other treats during the holidays and got to know many parents over the years.