SERVICE

CROSSING GUARDS Kevin Reen ’99, a police officer in Swampscott, Mass., directs traffic with his new friend and “deputy” helper, Ethan Fontes-Fried (age 3).

SERVICE “Hey You!”

PHOTOGRAPHS BY NATE FONTES-FRIED

Swampscott, Mass., police officer Kevin Reen ’99 was filling in as a crossing guard outside Stanley Elementary School in May, when a neighbor across the street, three-year-old Ethan Fontes-Fried, spotted Reen and his police cruiser and struck up a friendship.

Ethan’s father, Nate, a professional photographer, told the Swampscott Reporter that his son began shouting to Reen from his front porch. “Hey you! Hey you! What’s your name?” Fontes-Fried recalled his son asking. Reen answered back and the two started to banter. “They were yelling back and forth,” Fontes-Fried said. “It was too funny, and they had a great little thing going on.” After a while, Reen paused and walked to his cruiser to grab a small, plastic Swampscott police officer badge. “I gave Ethan a badge, and I said, ‘Hey, next time I come back to work here, will you come out and help me?’” Reen told the North Shore newspaper.

When Reen returned on a Friday morning, Ethan was ready. “He comes out and says, ‘Hi Kevin. How are you? Can I come help you?’” Reen told the news outlet. “And I said, ‘Put your badge on, come on, and let’s go.’”

“We were out there for 15–20 minutes, crossing the kids. He was psyched and had a blast. I loved it,” said Reen, who holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from Boston University and moonlights as an endurance coach.

Police officers “do this every day,” he said. “It’s just this happened to get caught in a photograph.” n