A Piscataway High School student group has won $10,000 in recognition of its multimedia campaign aimed at encouraging safe driving by teens and throughout the community.

The PHS Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) took first place against more than 60 other schools throughout New Jersey in the 15^th annual U Got Brains Champion Schools Program, sponsored by the Brain Injury Alliance.

The annual initiative, which engages New Jersey high school students and staff in creating campaigns on teen driving safety, praised the students’ “Pway You Know: Drive Safe, Drive Slow” project as “a creative, community-rooted effort focused on reducing speeding.”

“With bold branding tied to school spirit, strong teamwork, and cross-club collaboration, Piscataway’s campaign reached 2,300 students and resonated across the community to lay a powerful foundation for ongoing change,” the Brain Injury Alliance wrote on its website, where three high schools are highlighted as grand prize winners. Indian Hills and Matawan are the others. The grand prize money was donated by NJM Insurance Group.

“As a first year club, to win the grand prize award competing against over 60 other schools in NJ has been nothing short of amazing,” said adviser Laura Benjamin, a health and physical education teacher at PHS. “I am so proud of the commitment these students made to ensuring such an important message about safe driving and no speeding got out to the student body of PHS and the community of Piscataway.”

PHS Principal Chris Baldassano said he is proud of the SADD Club, not just for their victory in the U Got Brains competition, but for all of their hard work in starting and building the club.

“This is such a talented, driven group of students that genuinely cares about making their community a better, safer place and I am so impressed with their effort this year,” Baldassano said. “I am looking forward to seeing what they have in store for the future.”

PHS SADD worked closely with Officers William Kloos, Mark Chanley, and Ian Paglia, and Sgt. Hakeem Abdullah of the Piscataway Police Department to determine its messaging and to share the campaign with the community. The students used police data to zero in on speeding as the top traffic-safety issue in the community. The Piscataway Police also invited the students to join Piscataway's Safe Streets Initiative, and joined the students at events to share information about safe driving.

“One of the best takeaways from this experience has been the relationship we built with the three officers and sergeant of the Safe Streets team at the Piscataway Police Department,” Benjamin said. “We joined their events, and they joined ours. There wasn’t one event in regard to this campaign that wasn’t a collaborative effort. They have grown to be just as much a part of the team as the students and myself and we really appreciate them.”

The centerpiece of the safe-driving campaign was the “Pway You Know: Drive Safe, Drive Slow” logo and slogan. The logo was created by PHS junior Josiah Johnson, who is a member of the SADD leadership team along with Tanvi Narava, Tyler West, and Gabrielle Williams. The message has been showing since February on electronic signs in front of every school in the district, as well as police and township signs and information, and SADD members sold merchandise such as shirts, hats, and pins displaying the slogan.

SADD also partnered with the PHS Art Honor Society for a “Chalk the Walk” event on April 10, drawing creative safe-driving messages on the sidewalks outside the high school as another creative way to spread the word.

As part of SADD’s entry into the U Got Brains competition, SADD members created a video detailing the multitude of outreach programs the students implemented with the Safe Streets program.

“We kind of learned as we went, which makes this win even more special,” Benjamin said. “The students worked together, brought friends on board to join the group, built confidence in themselves, showed commitment, and really let their talents shine. Everyone had something to offer to the group to get us to our win.”