AAA Honors Anne Arundel County Student with Outstanding School Safety Patroller of the Year Award

ODENTON, MD (June 25, 2025) - AAA proudly announces that Jack Morgan, a fifth grader at Waugh Chapel Elementary School is Anne Arundel County’s 2024-2025 Outstanding School Safety Patroller of the Year.

Jack was nominated for this honor by his Safety Patrol Advisors, Mrs. Kimberly Fitzmaurice and Ms. Brandy Hill and was recognized during his school’s fifth grade graduation ceremony for his exemplary leadership qualities.

Like thousands of his peers across the country, Jack is committed to keeping his fellow students safe and being a positive role model at his school. He is described as an open-minded, caring, responsible leader, who is respected by his peers, advisors and teachers. “Jack is a model of respect, dependability and hard work,” said Mrs. Kimberly Fitzmaurice, AAA Safety Patrol Advisor. This year, Jack’s fellow patrollers nominated him to be a Captain. “Overwhelmingly, his peers thought he exemplified leadership qualities and responsibility.”

In addition to his leadership role as Captain of the AAA Safety Patroller program, Jack represented Waugh Chapel by being the school’s nominee for the Mo Gaba Positivity and Perseverance Award for his advocacy related to working with students who have special needs. “Jack and his fellow nominees demonstrated exceptional capabilities to overcome obstacles and showed kindness and a positive attitude to change the lives of others,” Mrs. Fitzmaurice said.

For more than 100 years, the AAA School Safety Patrol has been the world’s largest school-based safety program. Patrollers around the world provide school-aged children an extra sense of safety and security during the school day’s busiest times: arrival and dismissal. As a peer-to-peer leadership development program, Safety Patrols are trained to recognize safety hazards to ensure a safer school environment. The presence of a AAA School Safety Patroller wearing the familiar belt and badge is a nationally recognized symbol representing more than 679,000 children throughout the country who participate in the program each year.

“Jack’s leadership and compassion at his school and community exemplify the values of the AAA School Safety Patrol program,” said Ragina Cooper Ali, Public and Government Affairs Manager for AAA.

Created to make school children safer while walking to school, the program has grown-up and matured with the times while remaining steadfast to its mission to provide a safer environment and leadership opportunities for millions of school children. The training that patrollers receive instills safety sense beyond street crossings, including bus and car drop-offs, monitoring hallway congestion, and teaching patrollers invaluable leadership skills.

“AAA is proud to support this critical safety program in Maryland and at schools across the country,” Ali added. “We provide these young people with training tools to help make their school safer. We are consistently impressed with the leadership, maturity and initiative demonstrated by these young leaders at their schools."

The leadership values and safety awareness have inspired many former patrollers to pursue admirable careers, including Presidents of the United States, astronauts, governors, Members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, Olympic medalists, and authors, like Diary of a Wimpy Kid author, Jeff Kinney. Many patrollers now serve as educators, executives, and community leaders.

Since 1920, AAA has been providing various equipment and education materials to patrollers, including reflective belts, patrol badges and training resources. The AAA model has been adopted in at least 30 other countries, including England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.