MILFORD, Del. - AAA is celebrating 100 years of school safety patrol. The company has the world's largest school based safety program, and they celebrated this milestone with a flag raising at Lulu M. Ross Elementary Wednesday morning. Delaware has over 1,800 safety patrollers in 67 of its schools.
Safety patrollers are students who help other students cross the street, direct traffic around the school and more. AAA selected one school at each state to hold the flag raising ceremony and they chose Lulu Ross in Milford.
Ken Grant from AAA said supreme court justices, astronauts, and some U.S. presidents started off as safety patrollers, which goes to show that the program instills leadership skills in kids.
Teagan Kneifl is a proud safety patroller at Lulu Ross. "I go around the school and make sure kids are walking, make sure their school laces are tied, and make sure they are not fighting one another," she said.
On Wednesday, she and her fellow patrollers were honored with a flag raising ceremony in honor of the AAA safety patrol program's 100th anniversary.
"They really look out for their fellow students and provide an example for responsibility and good habits," said Dr. Amanda Gaglione, Assistant Principal at Lulu Ross.
Local community leaders and former patrollers were in attendance, like Mayor Archie Campbell.
"I mean look, I'm the mayor now, who knew safety patrol would lead me in this direction!" said Campbell.
In 1920, AAA decided it was important for kids to learn leadership skills and keeping their peers safe.
"We are looking at hundreds of children's lives who have probably been saved through this safety patrol program, now that's a matter of stopping kids from jaywalking, incidents in dropping off and picking up," said Ken Grant, Manager of Public and Government Affairs at AAA.
According to AAA, since 2010 there has been a 24 percent decrease in pedestrian deaths for ages 5-14 across the country.
440 lifesaving awards have been given nationwide, with a few in Delaware.
"There was a safety patroller here who was awarded a life saving award a couple of years ago, she helped her friend to stop from choking, so this is something that really has an impact," said Grant.
Teagan is continuing to make a difference in her community.
"I want to be kind to others and just help people, so I can prevent injuries and just make sure people and students are safe," said Kneifl.
As of this school year there are 679, 000 patrollers in the United States. AAA also says this program has been adopted in 30 other countries over the course of 100 years.
