Item PH26905 - Children safe with this man

"Chris Van Alebeek has 25 grandchildren, had worked outdoors all his life, and was bored after four years' retirement. So he began a new career this year - as a crossing guard, shepherding school children across the busy stretch of Holland St. East, on their way to and from Marie of the Incarnation School. Mr. Van Alebeek was born in Dendungen, in the Dutch province of Brabant in 1900. He lived in Holland, working as a farmer until 1952, when he, his late wife Wilhelmina, and their five sons and two daughters made the move to Canada. The family emigrated, he told The Witness, because he had seen too much hardship and danger during the two world wars and wanted a better life for his children. The Van Alebeeks came straight to Bradford and stayed here. Their youngest children, twin girls, were born in Canada."