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AAA Honors Life-Saving Safety Patrollers in White House Ceremony

3 June 1997

AAA Honors Life-Saving Safety Patrollers in White House Ceremony

    WASHINGTON, June 3 -- Four heroic school safety patrollers
from California, Indiana and Ohio were presented the 1997 AAA School Safety
Patrol Life Saving Medal in a ceremony held at the White House yesterday.
    The awards, presented by White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry,
recognized the patrollers' quick actions while on duty that saved the lives of
fellow students.

    The four patrol members honored today were:
    *  Edwin H. Berry and Surmel D. Cummings, both 11, of Leawood Elementary
in Columbus, Ohio, combined their efforts to pull a 6-year-old from dangerous
interstate highway traffic.
    *  Domonique Fines, 11, of St. Jarleth School, Oakland, Calif., pushed a
fellow safety patroller from the path of an out-of-control truck just before
it jumped the curb where the girl had been kneeling to tie her shoe.
    *  Marcus A. Morgan, 10, of Shambaugh Elementary, Fort Wayne, Ind., raced
after a van that was dragging a fellow student whose coat string was caught in
the vehicle's door.  He ran along side the van, getting the attention of the
driver who stopped after traveling 54 feet.

    Press Secretary McCurry, a former safety patroller himself at Roosevelt
Elementary School in Redwood City, Calif., said, "We honor you today not only
for your heroic acts but for all those other days that you have guided your
schoolmates safely on their way."
    The safety patrol is an organization of boys and girls selected from
upper-elementary and junior high school levels to help classmates travel
safely to and from school.  There are more than 500,000 patrol members
nationwide in 50,000 schools.  AAA has sponsored the school safety patrol for
77 years.
    The four recipients of this year's Life Saving Medals join the ranks of
328 others who have earned the award since its inception in 1949.
    AAA is a not-for-profit federation of 99 clubs with more than 1,000
offices providing more than 39 million members in the U.S. and Canada with
travel, insurance, financial and auto-related services.
    AAA news releases can be downloaded from the following sites:
AOL -- Keyword: AAA; Click on "News and Events," "News Releases."
 INTERNET -- http://www.aaa.com/news/news.html

SOURCE  American Automobile Association