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

STERLING, VA (June 18, 2026) - AAA proudly announces that Brandon Ickowski, a fifth grader at Lowes Island Elementary School In Loudoun County has been named as a 2025-2026 AAA Outstanding School Safety Patroller of the Year.

Brandon was nominated for this honor by his Safety Patrol Advisor, Mr. Michael Lucchino, and was recently recognized by AAA.

Like thousands of his peers across the country, Brandon is committed to keeping his fellow students safe and being a positive role model at his school. He consistently demonstrates leadership qualities and is a responsible and caring leader, who is respected by his peers, advisors and teachers.

Brandon consistently demonstrates exceptional awareness and initiative. According to his advisor, Mr. Lucchino, “One example of Brandon’s outstanding leadership occurred during morning arrival when the teacher assigned to that post was absent and a substitute was unfamiliar with the procedures. As traffic began to back up and students were unsure how to proceed, Brandon recognized the issue immediately. He calmly stepped into a leadership role by helping control the flow of traffic and guiding students safely from vehicles to the sidewalk.”

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 with 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.

“Brandon’s principles and strong leadership qualities exemplify the values of the AAA School Safety Patrol program,” said Ragina Cooper Ali, Public and Government Affairs Manager for AAA Club Alliance in Maryland and Washington, D.C.

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 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 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.