Commitment of resident crossing patrol team recognised with cookies

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Year 7 students from Scott Point School, Ria and Elyssa, popped along to Keith Park Village recently with a yummy gift for residents – home-made chocolate chip cookies!

A group of residents have been patrolling the crossing over Clark Road next to the village to help the students get to school safely, and the girls decided this kind act needed to be recognised.

“It’s really nice of you guys to help all of us,” Elyssa, 11, told the group. “Some of us are really small so it’s not that easy for us to see.”

“We wanted to give you some cookies to say thank you!”

The crossing patrol started up at the end of 2023 after a new footpath was installed along the northern border of the village.

Students immediately started using the footpath, which crosses over busy Clark Road, to get to school. But residents soon spotted a hazard in the making as many students, often on bikes and scooters, didn’t always realise they were crossing a road, giving drivers little time to slow down.

Led by Don Bennington, a roster of like-minded residents quickly formed to patrol the crossing in the mornings and afternoons, come rain or shine.

Scott Point School Learning Assistant Takashi Sawada (far left) with Year 7 students Elyssa (left) and Ria (right) with Keith Park Village residents (from left) Ralph Martin, Andrew Philson, Bev Broughton, Don Bennington, Heather Jackson, John O'Connor and Glenys Moore. Top pic: Raymond Moore gets in first for the cookies!

Bev Broughton praised the children for always being ‘so lovely and polite’ and said helping them was a way for her to ‘do her bit’ for the community: “It really means a lot.”

Accompanying the girls was Learning Assistant Takashi Sawada who thanked the residents for modelling such a great service.

He said The Cookie Project was inspired by the students as part of a school-wide initiative to serve the wider community in some way.

“It’s intended to foster whanaungatanga (kinship) and manaakitanga (hospitality and kindness) in our ongoing relationship with the Ryman residents.

“Motivating the creation of the project was an interest in wanting to express gratitude to the crossing team for their service and leadership, caring for our rangatahi youth and modelling our kura-values in society,” Takashi says.

This isn’t the first time the residents’ efforts have been recognised by the local community.

In November 2024, as part of a social responsibility project, Year 6 students from Hobsonville Point Primary School presented the residents with high-vis vests complete with a Hobby Heroes logo they had designed.

“The residents have inspired more road safety around our school,” they said.

by Maryvonne Gray | Apr 14, 2026