But you know, I feel like I’m still 60,” Ames said. After 20 years, Ames says she feels like she’s about “halfway through.” There’s probably no way to know for sure, but in Ivins’ short history as a city, she is likely the longest-serving crossing guard. Always considerate.”Īmes has kept going and going and says she doesn’t feel at all like her batteries are running out. “She’s been like the Energizer bunny,” Smith said of Ames. He asked that the city do so at the next council meeting. She’s iconic enough that those who search the corner of 400 East and 200 South on Google Maps will see her.Īnd she has drawn the notice of some powerful people.ĭuring a recent Ivins City Council meeting, council member Kevin Smith, who also runs the Tuacahn Center for the Arts, said Ames is worthy of a top city honor. In the center of Ivins near Center Street, Ames and Shadow are as much a fixture of the city as City Hall to the north and the growing Black Desert Resort to the east. I couldn’t have had a perfect job or living in a more perfect town, or living in a more perfect place.” Sandy Ames seen is a screenshot from Google Maps in an image taken at the corner of 400 East and 200 South, Ivins, Utah, April 2023 | Photo courtesy of Google Maps, St. I was just walking up the street from that light and thinking I’m so glad I live in Ivins, where I see that beautiful Red Mountain and the Pine Valley mountain over there usually has snow on it in the wintertime,” Ames said. The last kids have moved on to Red Mountain Elementary about a block away. She added that the job is perfect to her as she looks around at the postcard scenery, turning off the flashing school zone signs. “Half the time I don’t remember them because they’ve grown up and they’ve changed,” Ames said. It’s just that the last time she saw that 27-year-old, they were six. It’s not any of the forgetfulness that can come with aging. “They say, ‘Oh, don’t you remember me? I said, ‘Of course, I remember you.”īut Ames admitted she might not always be entirely truthful. The kids have gotten to know me, then they graduate from this school and then they come back to see me every couple of years,” Ames said. Many of the kids she helped cross the street nearly 20 years ago are old enough to be the parents of those Ames helps today. She knows where home is, so she goes home.” “She had been out hunting mice already and I said, ‘Go home now and stay home until I get home,” Ames said. George News stopped by for an interview, Shadow the cat came for a brief snub. Sometimes she has a shadow - her cat Shadow, who is known to join her and the kids on occasion to “catch mice.”Īmes lives just a few houses down. Since 2005, when Ivins had 40% fewer population and Red Mountain Elementary School was 7 years old, Ames has been stationed at the same corner when kids go to school in the morning and when they come home. Wearing her neon yellow-green uniform, she raises a stop sign while taking intermittent trips to help students and pedestrians safely cross the street past the neon-green traffic cones she set up earlier that day. Sandy Ames, 81, does what she has done for nearly 20 years - helping kids on their way to Red Mountain Elementary cross the street at the corner of 400 East and 200 South, Ivins, Utah, Feb. IVINS - If it’s a school day in Ivins, there’s one person residents are guaranteed to see at the corner of 400 East and 200 South: 81-year-old Sandy Ames.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |