SUNSET -- Sunset Elementary School students know that no matter how bad the weather is, they can count on Janet "Nan" Lujan to walk with them to school, help them cross the street and keep them safe.
Her face is usually the first many of the 400 students see when they arrive at school, said Assistant Principal Amber Sundown. "She is here usually before I am."
Sundown, who is in her first year at the elementary school, said "it took me the first week to figure out Nan is a volunteer and not a paid staff member."
"She is our guardian angel. Every school should have someone just like her."
Lujan, who has never driven a car, lives just a few blocks from the school. Several years ago, after a new parking lot had been built at the school, the 73-year-old noticed the dangers students faced.
She approached the school's PTA and administration, and they gave her permission to be the students' "shepherd."
She walks with the students to school, helps them cross 250 West in front of the school and keeps them out of the parking lots as parents, teachers and staff arrive in the morning.
"Slow down, slow down," Lujan said to a kindergartner running on the sidewalk to get into line before school.
Lujan carries a walking stick carved for her by fifth-grade teacher Jimmy Jones, who now teaches at Cook Elementary School. The wooden stick helps her to keep her balance along the sidewalk, which is uneven and can get slippery in bad weather.
She also carries a whistle, which she blows to warn a child of danger -- except when it's cold.
"Don't do that. You live and learn," she said, laughing about the one time the whistle stuck to her lips.
Inside her coat pocket, she carries a folded, creased yellow index card with faded penciled words that she reads every morning, especially on the cold mornings when it would be easier to stay home.
It reads: "Character takes courage. It requires doing what is right even when it's not easy or popular."
Lujan, who has a Scottish terrier motif stitched on the back of her orange vest, immigrated to the United States from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1961 and became a U.S. citizen in 1979.
She moved to her present home in 1963 and raised her three sons there. She has six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 2007.
As soon as the school opens for the children, Lujan quickly walks down the hall to the lunchroom, where she helps set up breakfast for the kindergartners.
Within minutes, she sets eight tables with place mats, with each table seating eight children.
"She's amazing," said kindergarten teacher Gayleen Smith.
"She helps us clean up our messes," said Olivia Candland, a kindergartner who lives near Lujan.
Lujan buzzes around from one table to another to help the children open small bags of apple slices or their cereal boxes, or to locate straws for the milk.
"I enjoy children," Lujan said, bending to receive a hug from a boy.
In a few hours, Lujan will be back to walk the students safely home.
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