Crossing guard leaves a legacy of kindness

A changing of the guard took place in early September when Dot Larsen did one final shift ushering children safely across King Street to and from St. Stephen Elementary School.
She did not plan on a 35-year career as a school crossing guard back in 1986. Her son Rodney, in Grade 2, came home one day and said, "'Mom, we crossed the road on our own,' and he said there was no school guard down there, so I phoned the town to see how come there was no school guard," she recalls. She asked if she could do the job to the end of the school year, "and they said, 'Well, can you be down to the crosswalk tomorrow morning?"
She did the job to the end of the school year, then went to town hall to put her name in to do the job again in the fall. "They said, 'Well, you're already the school guard, why put your name in?' So, I've been there ever since." A health crisis in May of this year finally forced her to retire in her 80s.
So Mayor Allan MacEachern, RCMP officers, teachers, both current and former students and others gathered on the sidewalk at "Dot's Crossing," where she donned her bright orange vest and picked up her sign for one final time. Folks who came out for the occasion included Tiffany Richardson, the new crossing guard, and Chris Groom and Isaac Armstrong, whom Larsen ushered across King Street in the 1980s. Four-year-old William Thiessen Van Esch came, too. "She [Dot Larsen] was one of the first people I got to know when I moved here," William's mother Janelle says.
Dot -- everybody calls her Dot -- became a fixture in front of the school morning and afternoon through the school year. Several years ago, the town officially named the crosswalk to the school "Dot's Crossing." She has accepted honours and recognition over the years, including grand marshal of the Santa Claus Parade.
Dot Larsen, a native of Newfoundland who has made St. Stephen her home, grew into the hearts of hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of young people over 35 years. She greeted them by name and gave each a card and suckers on their birthdays. How did she know all those birthdays? "I'd write it down and I'd save all the calendars, and they would remind me too, you know, that it was their birthday," she says.
She has a way of making people feel special. "They were special. They're the only one," she says, explaining that a child is, in fact, the only one crossing the street at that moment.
That Dot Larsen continued working until her health forced her to retire did not surprise many people in St. Stephen. "This is a sad day. This was a hard week," she says, referring to her final shift at Dot's Crossing.
On the cheerier side, she says, "I'm so thankful I got my own new vest and I'm allowed to keep it." Once she ushered the last of her charges safely across the street at the end of the school day, the group repaired to the Garcelon Civic Center for cake and refreshments.