Hagi Galvan leaps out of his mother's car, grabs his neon orange safety patrol vest and flag, and walks briskly to his post at the corner of Vincent Avenue and 50th Street in Minneapolis.
And a brisk walk it is. It's about 32 degrees and Hagi has forgotten his mittens. No time to fret. Hagi and about a dozen fellow students at Lake Harriet Community School fan out to three corners where they will devote the next 15 minutes to important, potentially lifesaving work.
Hagi, an 11-year-old sixth-grader, is in his second year as a member of his school's safety patrol, a select group of upper class students charged with the safe crossing of kids, moms with strollers, joggers and dog-walkers during the bustling morning commute. Many students return to work the afternoon patrol.
Hagi won't brag, but he's quite a hero. In January, after a considerable snowfall, Hagi watched as a car quickly approached his four-way intersection with no sign of stopping as a third-grader stepped into the street. Hagi rushed into the street, grabbed the student by his backpack and pulled him back to the curb as the driver finally looked up and veered away. No one who witnessed the frightening event doubted that without Hagi's quick work, the child would have been hit.
The child's family, including his teary-eyed mother who had been waiting in her car honking frantically, thanked Hagi with two $25 gift cards and several movie theater-size boxes of candy.
He was named a "Lake Harriet Hero" by his school, and earned a Life Saving Award from AAA Minneapolis.
It's all nice, but you know what Hagi really wants?
"I haven't gotten the [car's] license plate yet," he said earlier this week. "I'm sorry I didn't get it."