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Each year the VTLSP/SADD Board chooses a VTLSP/SADD student leader that has demonstrated exceptional work at both the local and state levels. This year the winner is Ashleigh Mahoney from Stafford Technical Center in Rutland.

From the award presentation by her advisor John D'Esposito at the 2007 GYLC Conference:

There are some givens to the selection (of the VTLSP Student of the Year). First of all, the selectee is usually a senior, and this year's is, too. Secondly, the student has usually been active for more than one year in the program; this year's honoree has been involved for at least four years. Thirdly, the student who is chosen has usually been a YAC (Youth Advisory Council) member for at least one year; this student has fulfilled this position for more than one year and for more than one school. Fourthly, the student who has been chosen has to be a role model for others in living a life of wise decisions and healthy choices, this year's VTLSP Student of the Year is a shining example for others.

Ideally, the member has a history of service to his or her community and leads a full life. Our Student of the Year has a job and does a variety of community service activities, including being a volunteer on a rescue squad, night and day, through good weather and bad, going to car crashes and heart attacks and helping the victims. The student should also be active in their local VTLSP/SADD chapter; this person has participated in many chapter activities: the Red Ribbon Tree to memorialize victims of impaired driving crashes, safety belt surveys at their schools, and working with their local START teams, mock party busts, etc. Our honoree has done all that, too. This person is also on the High Honor Roll at her school, where she is dually enrolled as a high school and college student.

Lastly, the work of the VTLSP Student of the Year should be exceptional, and it is... perhaps exceptionally so. This student persevered after she lost her advisor in her first school's VTLSP/SADD Chapter, and then continued on as a one person VTLSP/SADD Chapter after the school's Chapter folded as no one stepped forward to become the advisor. When she changed schools, she seamlessly continued as a leader in this organization.

The most exceptional piece of work that this student accomplished was developing a project called the Tuxedo Insert Program, where every tuxedo rented for proms through rental companies in Rutland County and most corsages for proms bought at floral shops in Rutland County have a piece of paper showing the costs of a prom with alcohol and without alcohol. This program brings together laws enforcement officers, our county's community anti-drug coalition and the three VTLSP/SADD Chapters in the county. The program has been the subject of presentations at a number of national conferences, and has been replicated in many parts of Vermont, as well as communities throughout the U.S. This year, this program won a federal government "Success Story" award, and was recognized as a model program in reducing underage drinking.

Congratulations Ashleigh!