PUNTA GORDA — One day while dropping her child off at school, Deanna van Emmerik could barely make out the bright chartreuse reflection tape of the vests through the downpour, but the crossings guards were on duty as usual, one sitting on her three-wheeler under a striped umbrella, the other waiting patiently in his car for any sign of pedestrians.

“That is when I realized that crossing guards were kind of like unsung heroes,” said van Emmerik, a member of the Parent Teacher Organization at Sallie Jones Elementary. “They are the first friendly faces the school kids see and the last people to watch as they travel safely home.”