Kiwanis donates 5 more stop signs

Victoria Vlisides - Unified Newspaper Group January 3, 2011

The Kiwanis Club of Verona has finished its effort to help Verona kids cross the street more safely.

The club had donated five hand-held, lighted stop signs for crossing guards, covering half the city's 10 school crosswalks. This month it got five more signs to equip all of them.

The signs, which cost $180 a piece, are especially useful as the days become darker, earlier and in fog and other overcast weather conditions, crossing guard John Braun explained. They have rechargeable batteries and eight blinking red LED lights on each side for added visibility.

Kiwanis member Teresa Wilson said the group had earmarked and raised enough money to purchase all 10 of the signs but had been waiting to see if a safety grant would come through that could pay for the remainder of the signs.

"We were going to wait to see how that all panned out, but then we got together as a group and thought we shouldn't really wait for the grant," she said. "Why give it to five and not to the others?"

The money was raised during their summer campaign, from brat sales and working at Hometown Days. The group purchased nine of the signs from a company called TAPCO based in Brown Deer, Wis., and TAPCO donated one, Wilson said.

One of the nine crosswalk areas, at North Main and Llanos streets, has two crossing guards manning the station and has two signs. "Two crossing guards work this post together because of high traffic volume and the boulevard design," Verona police Lt. Dave Dresser explained.

The Kiwanis Club is a service organization of men and women dedicated to meeting the needs of children. The word "kiwanis" originates from a Native American phrase meaning "we have a good time."

The Verona club received its official charter in 2006 to start helping Verona kids. For more information or to volunteer, visit www.veronakiwanis.org.