By Cecelia Sullivan-
In today’s fast world of motorized vehicles who will protect the school children who walk everyday? Junior Paul Hines will! Every school day Paul is outside at the cross walk with his yellow vest and stop sign in hand. Without fail he is there to protect the children of the Mount Vernon community so they can get to school safely.

Paul started his duties of crossing guard May 16, 2011. Paul was a freshman when he took over the crossing guard job for Mookie Mlynarczyk. Mookie was one of the people who inspired Paul to take the prestigious job with the title of “Lifesaver”. After all, saving lives is one of Paul’s favorite activities, along with watching Netflix while lying in his bed.

Paul has a very busy life; along with being the crossing guard every day before and after school, Paul works three other jobs. He works at an after school daycare, at the local movie theater and as an IT employee for the school district.

As an IT employee Paul fixes computers for the teachers and students. Paul solves lots of computer problems on a daily basis. He loves to help people and this is just another example of his kindness.

“I like having children in this world,” said Paul. He likes it so much that along with keeping them safe he enjoys watching them after school. Paul is employed at Kids Club, the local after school care, he is very good with the children there.

As well as keeping the children of Mount Vernon safe and taking care of them, Paul entertains them and many others. He works every Friday at the Bijou Movie Theater. The Bijou is a single theater and a town favorite. The Bijou has low prices on admission, pop, popcorn, and candy. Many children, adults, teenagers, and people of all ages love to go there on Friday nights to see a movie. Seeing Paul there is just another example of what he does for the community.

Out of all the ways Paul serves the community, he is best known as the crossing guard. However this job is not as easy as it looks. One of the biggest challenges that Paul has had to face was an elementary student who does not like to look both ways before crossing the street. One day this child wasn’t paying attention and ran out into the street before Paul was ready. The child was almost hit by an oncoming car. This was very scary for Paul, however this event made him even better at his job.

Many people have ideals of a crossing guard. For example: they are kind, and good citizens. Junior Noah Dahlstrom thinks that Paul is a perfect crossing guard because of his enthusiastic and very helpful personality. Noah said that Paul “knows what he’s doing.”