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

ANNANDALE, VA (June 23, 2025) - AAA proudly announces that Kristen King, a sixth grader at Canterbury Woods Elementary School in Annandale, VA is Fairfax County’s 2024-2025 Outstanding School Safety Patroller of the Year.

Like thousands of her peers across the country, Kristen has remained committed to keeping her fellow students safe and being a positive role model at his school.

Her AAA School Safety Patrol Advisor, Ms. Debbie Rozek, nominated Kristen for this award and several of her teachers, peers and even her principal wrote letters of support for this honor, as well. They shared numerous examples of Kristen’s leadership, including her serving as Captain of her Patrol and taking the initiative to learn sign language, so that she could effectively communicate with a deaf student, who she mentored.

“She cares deeply for the young special needs students and they look up to her,” said Debbie Rozek, AAA School Safety Patrol Advisor. “She is a great role model for safety patrols and fellow students and is mature beyond her years, setting her apart from others.”

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 nearly 680,000 children throughout the country who participate in the program each year.

“It’s the dedication and leadership of students like Kristen and countless others that have made the AAA School Safety Patrol program so impactful for decades, “ 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 a sense of safety 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 Virginia and at schools across the country,” Ali added. “We provide these young people with training tools to help make their school safer. We are impressed with their leadership and initiative in implementing safety changes and improvements at their schools."

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 schoolchildren. 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.

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.