Sandy Hook Promise is excited to announce this year’s SAVE Promise Club award winners! We honor and celebrate the creativity, dedication and hard work these youth did to create safe, inclusive schools and communities.
SAVE Promise Clubs are excited to recognize 34 Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) Promise Clubs. They did outstanding work in creating safer and kinder schools and communities. Each awardee receives recognition and $250 for their club activities.
Elementary Schools
SAVE Promise Club at Rockford Elementary – Dobson, North Carolina
These students only exemplify dedication and compassion by spearheading initiatives like the buddy bench and anonymous bullying reporting boxes. They’re also by embracing the spirit of Start with Hello. Their commitment to fostering inclusivity and support on the playground demonstrates their dedication to building a welcoming and empathetic school community.
Pembroke Lakes Elementary School – Pembroke Pines, Florida
The SAVE Promise Club presence and initiatives have had a deep impact, fostering a culture of empathy and activism among students. Through their efforts, they’ve increased awareness of important issues like anti-violence and social justice. The club also empowered their peers to become compassionate leaders in their community.
SAVE Promise Club at Morrow Elementary School, North Lauderdale, Florida
This club promotes upstander culture through captivating live action plays like the Wizard of Oz-themed skit. They also empower fellow peers to be upstanders. From in-school performers to community events, they inspire fellow students. It’s motivating peers to stand up against violence, celebrate upstanders, and encourage others to join in making a positive difference.
SAVE Promise Club at North Andrews Gardens Elementary School in Oakland Park, Florida
The North Andrews Garden SAVE Promise Club actively promotes safety, mental health awareness, and inclusion. They use various channels like social media and local events. The club spearheads initiatives within the school and community, aiming to positively impact student lives while empowering student leadership.
SAVE Promise Club at Quiet Waters Elementary School – Deerfield Beach, Florida
The club has been recognized for its exceptional dedication to fostering kindness, preventing bullying, and promoting empathy. They’ve done this through innovative initiatives like buddy benches, community service projects, and leadership development. The club has made a profound and positive impact on school culture. Students are being empowered to become compassionate leaders both within their school and in their future endeavors.
Rio Vista Elementary School, El Monte, California
This year, Rio Vista Elementary School’s SAVE Promise Club educated their peers on the importance of Say Something. The students worked with their advisor to create a skit demonstrating how to be an Upstander. They encouraged their peers to tell a trusted adult when they observe warning signs or threats.
Norland Elementary School, Miami, Florida
The students in the SAVE Promise Club at Norland Elementary School have created a safe, inclusive school where every student feels valued and supported. They have worked to promote understanding, inclusion, and safety. By celebrating Start With Hello Week, Say Something Week, No ONE Eats Alone Day, Love and Kindness Day, No Place for Hate Day, and more, they’re cultivating a supportive community.
Riverside Elementary School, Coral Springs, Florida
At Riverside Elementary School, the club members lead the school’s news team, delivering uplifting messages of kindness and inclusion every morning. Their enthusiasm inspires students in lower grades to join the SAVE Club when they reach the upper grades. Additionally, the Club members are mentors for younger students, guiding them toward becoming SAVE members.
South Miami K-8 Center, Miami, Florida
The SAVE Promise Club at South Miami K-8 Center led multiple school-wide donation drives. They supported those affected by Hurricane Idalia and organizing holiday toy collections for students in need. They also aided Project UpStart, which assists students and families experiencing homelessness in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. These initiatives instilled a sense of compassion and kindness within the students, school, and community.
Community Based Organizations
SAVE Promise Club at Jared’s Heart Of Success Inc – Lithonia, Georgia
As an active community-based organization, Jared’s Heart of Success Inc in Lithonia, Georgia had a successful year engaging with community partners. They hosted events and call-to-action campaigns that have raised awareness and fostered a safer environment for everyone. These include afterschool partners and local community partners. Through their dedication and engagement, advocacy and education, and collaboration with partners, their efforts have yielded measurable results. This has increased awareness, positive behavioral changes, and tangible improvements in safety and well-being within their community.
Gwendolyn M Miller / Woodland Terrace, Tampa, Florida
In Tampa, this community-based organization gives regular Start With Hello challenges to their club members. They also teach the warning signs of violence to help build a better environment in their schools and community. The Gwendolyn M Miller/Woodland Terrace Club is bettering their community!
Middle Schools
Paul Robeson Community School for the Arts, New Brunswick, New Jersey
This year was full of growth and impact for the SAVE Promise Club at Paul Robeson Community School for the Arts. The Club doubled in size. They also started a new Upstander Program, as well as Panther Pals, where SAVE youth leaders visit the Autism Spectrum Disorder classrooms at their school to build connections. On top of these new initiatives, they held multiple successful call-to-action weeks. Further, they created a permanent mural for their school district’s “Day of Understanding” so that messages of empathy and peace would be uplifted every day.
East Hampton Middle School, East Hampton, Connecticut
The SAVE Promise Club at East Hampton was very active this year. They planned a successful Start With Hello Week and an impactful Say Something Week. At the same time, they have doubled their club enrollment. The club also worked with the community on activities from Kindness Week to a Youth Leadership Training attended by other schools in the area.
Glades Middle School, Miramar, Florida
It was a year of self-care and inclusivity at Glades Middle School! The SAVE Promise Club welcomed students and staff back on the first week by holding activities to make everyone feel welcome. They hosted a Teen Prevention Summit for over 500 students with a focus on mental health. The club also held a Peer Counseling Summit and other activities (like Start With Hello with a Cup of Cocoa) all year!
Hatikvah International Academy Charter School, East Brunswick, New Jersey
Hatikvah International Academy Charter School organized a successful Start With Hello Week, Say Something Week, and monthly activities. The club also collaborated with their student council, and has been involved in community food bank deliveries. Despite having seen four advisor changes due to staff turnover, they have had an impactful year.
Palos South Middle School, Palos Park, Illinois
Palos South’s SAVE Promise Club has a history of engagement and this year was no different. They held a “Donuts With First Responders” event to educate first responders on the mission of their club. In addition, they held multiple call-to-action weeks involving their entire campus. This year, they also awarded two students with good character in an award named in memory of a beloved former student.
Jared Eliot School, Clinton, Connecticut
Though this club is new, its members are already making an impact on the community. They hosted events all week during Start With Hello Week to help classmates break down barriers. They’re also working on a custom-built campus wellness cart and a day of service for their lower elementary schoolmates.
SAVE Promise Club at Pinellas Park Middle School – Pinellas Park, Florida
The Pinellas Park Middle School SAVE Promise Club worked hard this year to create meaningful ways for the entire student body to feel safe and secure at their school and in their community. They spread the word and meaning about Say Something Week and their anti-bullying campaign. Their activities brought a great turnout and encouraged their peers to spread the positive message.
SAVE Promise Club at Greiner Middle School – Dallas, Texas
The SAVE Promise Club at Greiner Middle School in Dallas, Texas only started with a small group of youth. Soon enough, their group became larger with the positive influence and recruitment activities. The club had great participation and supported of each of their school-wide activities. The activities promoted positivity, inclusion, kindness and safety, they were recognized twice as the #SAVEPromiseClub of the Month.
SAVE Promise Club at Broward County Schools – Fort Lauderdale, Florida
As a new club this year, the students of the Broward County Schools SAVE Promise Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida worked hard at spreading the message of positivity. They had kindness cards and peace flowers to celebrate Start With Hello. And from that they took other awareness days that meant something to their community and rose them up. These included World Peace Day, ADL Walk, Above the Influence March, Sock Drive for the Homeless, and Autism Awareness Month Activities.
SAVE Promise Club at Terrell Middle School – Dawson, Georgia
The SAVE Promise Club at Terrell Middle School has been actively involved all school year making their peers aware of ways to identify mental health issues and how to share this information. They conducted both call-to-action weeks, Start With Hello and Say Something. Those weeks included housed countless activities to teach their peers the messaging around both.
SAVE Promise Club at East Forsyth Middle School – Kernersville, North Carolina
As an ever-growing club, East Forsyth Middle School SAVE Promise Club in Kernersville, North Carolina have been working hard to make a difference in their school and community. They conducted countless service projects. These included a Thanksgiving supply drive, a canned food drive for Salvation Army, and campus wide clean ups across all grades. They also added positive messages in the hallways and the sidewalks. This club has conducted so many activities to help spread the message of inclusivity, safety, and connection in their school. They attended the National SAVE Summit in April and presented two breakout sessions to share all the great activities they have done with other attendees.
High Schools
Midway High School, Newton Grove, North Carolina
Midway’s SAVE Promise Club does an amazing job of encouraging everyone to be part of a welcoming community with their many projects. Great job working for safer schools and having a great time while doing it! Midway shared an impactful session at our 2024 SAVE Summit letting other clubs learn about how they are making a difference in their school.
Mukwonago High School, Mukwonago, Wisconsin
This club has been active in educating, encouraging, engaging, and empowering students in violence prevention and community building activities since 2007. They had a great year. They topped it off by sending members to the SAVE Summit in North Carolina to share some of their activities with other clubs from around the country.
Del Norte High School, San Diego, California
The Del Norte SAVE Promise Club works hard to be sure everyone feels included at their school by checking in on folks they see sitting alone throughout the school year. They also did an impactful assembly and program on the effects of underage drinking and driving for the whole school.
Mount Carmel High School, San Diego, California
This club actively works on promoting inclusivity, being an upstander and immediately taking action. Plus they’re connecting with the trusted adults on campus all year long. The trusted adults work on creating relationships with students on campus so that they feel seen, heard, and know that they belong here.
Cutler Bay Senior High School, Cutler Bay, Florida
The SAVE Promise Club at Cutler Bay works hard to build a sense of inclusion. They had great success making the new students feel like they belonged and were an important part of the school community. Their empowered student leadership group put in hundreds of hours planning and leading impactful events for Start With Hello, Say Something, and other activities throughout the year.
St. Stephens High School, Hickory, North Carolina
This year they grew their club! The guidance counselors joined our efforts during Start With Hello. We sent home information to our parents during Say Something Week. Our principal allowed more outreach and helped to reduce the stigma/fear of leading our school community into conversations about school violence. This was a huge step forward. Way to engage, educate, encourage, and empower youth leaders.
Robert L Patton High School, Morganton, North Carolina
Their SAVE Promise Club hosted their second annual School Safety Roundtable with their feeder middle school and included the middle school SAVE Club, their SRO, ours, and the principal. Their hope is that by teaming with the younger students, they can create sustainability and peer to peer education to promote the SAVE Club’s vision and mission to create safer more inclusive schools and communities.
North Marion High School, Citra, Florida
The club decided to complete a “Beautifying our Bathrooms” project. They began with one bathroom with positive mirror quotes and affirmation posters. The response was so amazing that the principal used funds to pay for our club to beautify EVERY bathroom on campus. The spread of positivity was contagious and truly helped to shift our atmosphere.
Hallandale High School, Hallandale Beach, Florida
This club has demonstrated a commitment to preventing violence in all its forms, whether it’s bullying, self-harm, or gun violence. They have consistently worked to educate peers about the warning signs of violence and how to intervene effectively, promoting a culture of safety and support within our school and community. The members of Hallandale SAVE Promise Club have demonstrated exceptional leadership skills, dedication, and passion for the cause. Empowering youth to be leaders of change. Whether it’s organizing events, leading workshops, or supporting their peers, each member has played a crucial role in advancing our mission and making their community a safer place for everyone.
Hollins High School, Kenneth City, Florida
Hollins SAVE Promise Club is passionate about helping others; from the students at the school to a local elementary school, to overseas to help babies in need. They know every act of kindness whether big or small has a ripple effect out into the world. They may not see all the impacts, but we know it is there. Finally, the Taste of Hollins is such a special event to celebrate diversity. They were able to top their year off by attending the SAVE Summit and presenting a breakout session sharing all their empowering activities with other attendees.
Biloxi High School, Biloxi, Mississippi
The Biloxi High SAVE Promise Club had a year full of almost 30 different activities and events. They worked with elementary students, supporting community events, Start With Hello Week and Say Something Week and even adopted grandparents at a local Senior Center. Their biggest event was Be The Light event in awareness of mental health. We volunteered a lot, with members putting in over 300 hours of community service.
Whiddon Rodgers Education Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
The SAVE Club sponsored a very successful school and community Field Day that brought together, students, school staff, community members, and law enforcement to build a sense of community and support. They have 198 students in the club this year. “We have stopped violence and gang violence on campus through our presence and actions we do at the school. We prevented over 50 fights from happening in the school because our club members saw something and said something to a trusted adult.” M. Demoya club advisor
About SAVE Promise Clubs
Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) Promise Club is the student leadership initiative of Sandy Hook Promise. Alongside our Youth Advisory Board, SAVE Promise Clubs provide the forum for youth leaders to take an active role in promoting safer more inclusive schools and communities.
