{"id":269416,"date":"2026-05-13T13:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269416\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T13:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:15:12","slug":"95-year-old-crossing-guard-mr-willie-gets-crosswalk-named-after-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269416\/","title":{"rendered":"95-year-old crossing guard Mr. Willie gets crosswalk named after him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Willie Chance has been putting smiles on kids&#8217; faces for 19 years as a Hillsborough County crossing guard.<\/p>\n<p>RIVERVIEW, Fla. \u2014 Mr. Willie is 95 years old and still shows up to his job every day to keep students safe. Now, he&#8217;s being honored by the Hillsborough County community he&#8217;s served for so long.<\/p>\n<p>Willie Chance has been working as a crossing guard for 19 years. And this past week, Summerfield Crossing Elementary School surprised him by naming the school crosswalk in his honor.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thank you, Mr. Willie, for nearly two decades of service, smiles, and commitment to protecting our children every single day,&#8221; the Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office wrote in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n<p>The sheriff&#8217;s office shared a photo of the beloved crossing guard standing next to his new &#8220;Mr. Willie&#8217;s Crosswalk&#8221; sign.<\/p>\n<p>Families flooded the comments on the post to share their appreciation for Mr. Willie&#8217;s years of service.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That man is so sweet. He waves at everyone that drives by,&#8221; one person wrote.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mr. Willie is absolutely the best!! He was my boys crossing guard at Seffner Elementary many years ago. He also a made our day,&#8221; another person shared.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Willie celebrated his 95th birthday in October and continues to take his job seriously for the students who look up to him. He&#8217;s known for his dedication, arriving before sunset and staying until the last student crosses the street.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I love it because it gives me more energy,&#8221; Mr. Willie said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/?v=410055653344567\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">video<\/a> back in 2020. &#8220;When I come in the morning time and see the kids coming down, they speak, &#8216;Good morning,&#8217; you know? Having a little conversation with the kids \u2014 that makes me feel good.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Willie Chance has been putting smiles on kids&#8217; faces for 19 years as a Hillsborough County crossing guard.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-269416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}