Crossing guards are honored

For 29 years, Johanna Keating has donned her white crossing guard hat and served at the street corners surrounding P.S. 188 in Bayside, helping students and parents cross to and from the school.
“No matter what the weather brings on any given day, you will find Mrs. Keating crossing the children,” said NYPD Sergeant Janet Jordan, from the Ceremonial Unit, at an event honoring Keating and seven other guards held at the Hall of Science in Corona on Wednesday, May 30. “But the difference with Johanna is she has been fighting lung cancer for the past 10 years. Just when she thought she had beaten it, it returned.”
Now Keating, who serves in the 111th Precinct, is awaiting results from her most recent round of chemotherapy and if the cancer persists, she plans to retire.
“As much as I don’t want to, I will hand in my papers,” Keating said. “Right now I have to think about myself.”
Many of the crossing guards often think more about the children they are crossing rather than themselves, Jordan said, describing another awardee, Ellen Rigosi, from the 112th Precinct. In January, Rigosi pulled a child out of the way of a speeding SUV.
“Due to her instinctual reaction, School Crossing Guard Rigosi prevented what could have been a tragic accident,” Jordan said.
Moreover, crossing guards often make themselves fixtures in the neighborhoods that they serve, said Patrol Borough Queens North Commander Diana Pizzuti as she gave the ceremony’s opening remarks. Pizzuti said that her mother-in-law had been a crossing guard, whose children came back to visit after becoming adults.
“They remembered her just as they will remember you,” Pizzuti told the crowd of crossing guards present to support all of the honorees. Jacqueline Marte from the 115th Precinct, Patricia Fazio from the 109th Precinct, Marguerite Casa from the 108th Precinct, Rose Siano from the 114th Precinct and Kathleen Riehl from the 104th Precinct were all honored at the ceremony.
Riehl has been stationed at Forest Avenue and Catalpa Avenue since 1981, and Fazio has served at her post for 22 years. Casa, who has been a crossing guard since 1968, was unable to attend the ceremony because she had an emergency bypass surgery in March and is still recovering.
In her place, fellow guard Debbie Ruiz, who herself was crossed by Fazio as a child, accepted the award.
Michelle Dunston from the 110th Precinct has been working at the intersection of 99th Street and 57th Avenue since 2000, but she has already found her place in the community, Jordan said, and Siano will be retiring at the end of the school year.
Marte has been posted at Our Lady of Fatima in Corona since 1989, making an hour and a half commute on three buses each way to the job since she moved to Kew Gardens Hills. She originally signed on to the profession when her four children, now ages 38 through 26, were young.
“The best part is when the children come and give you a group hug and say, ‘Thank you,’” Marte said.