Outstanding School Safety Patrol Members Honored

Two out of four Delaware students honored as Outstanding AAA School Safety Patrol Members for the 2018-2019 school year are from Red Clay. The two other award recipients are from the Christina and Brandywine school districts. Eighty-eight Delaware schools currently participate in the School Safety Patrol program.

Ella McLaughlin, a student at North Star Elementary and Rudy Vera Rios from Baltz Elementary were honored in May as Outstanding AAA School Safety Patrol Award Recipients by AAA Mid-Atlantic and the Mid-Atlantic Foundation for Safety and Education, a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to educating, training and raising the level of safety awareness. They each received a plaque and $100 gift card from AAA for their exemplary leadership skills and dedication to service.

“Ella is a great example of the values AAA and the Mid-Atlantic Foundation for Safety and Education stand for,” said Ken Grant, Public and Government Affairs Manager for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “Ella’s leadership by example inspires all of us.” Baltz Patrol Advisor Lester Carlisle talked about Rudy and said, “The first thing that stands out to me about Rudy is that, although he may be small in stature, his fellow patrollers admire and look up to him. He has proven to be a perfect right hand man to me by the leadership that he shows each day.”

AAA School Safety Patrols complete training in traffic safety so they can teach other students and serve as role models. Patrols protect students from the hazards of crossing roads on their way to and from school, assist bus drivers in safely transporting students to and from school and serve in leadership functions under the direction of school officials.

For close to 100 years, the AAA Mid-Atlantic has sponsored and provided major support for the AAA School Safety Patrol by supplying training materials, recognition programs for service, and patrol equipment, including a badge and belt. The program started to 1920 in Chicago, Illinois and today more than 650,000 students throughout the country participate. Over 93,000 are in the Mid-Atlantic area.