TA News

On Thursday, April 6, Margaret Smallwood was one of two youth in the state of Vermont to receive Prevention WorksVT!’s Prevention Champion Award at the Capitol Plaza in Montpelier. Margaret received the award for being a youth empowerment leader who has contributed to substance misuse prevention efforts at Thetford Academy and throughout our community.

Since joining Getting to Y in 2020, Margaret has been an anchoring member of the team. She has written (and been awarded) several grants, spearheaded many initiatives including the mood-boosting “Sunshine Boxes” for students, bathroom inSTALLments sharing important mental health messaging, sharing information about mental health check-ins, leading a schoolwide coping with stress activity, suicide prevention training, and much more. In addition to her work at TA, Margaret has also joined Getting to Y’s parent organization Up for Learning as an intern, helping to train hundreds of youth in VT, NH, MA and beyond.

Thetford Academy’s student assistance provider and Getting to Y mentor Kara Toms was effusive about Margaret and her work, “Whenever the Getting to Y team needs to lean on someone to make sure a task gets done, Margaret is one of our go-to students. She cares deeply about making a difference in her community and puts her beliefs into action. Thetford Academy is a better place because of Margaret.”