Montgomery KOSS (Keep Our Schools Safe) is a non-profit organization based in the state of Washington. The goal of the Montgomery KOSS project is to help keep children out of trouble and to help keep our schools safe by rewarding good behavior with free train rides and awards.

       In 2001 the Montgomery KOSS Award was established because of an incident that Eugene Montgomery, founder of the award, experienced while volunteering at a elementary school. One day, while Eugene was helping one of the students with reading in the hallway of the school, a little boy came up to him and said, "teacher, teacher, Jessica needs someone to put bullets in a gun so she can shoot a little boy." Eugene was shocked that a ten-year old had a gun and wanted to shoot someone.

       He told the boy to go and get Jessica and he would help her.While the boy was getting Jessica, Eugene waved over the teacher of the classroom. He told the teacher about the incident. The boy arrived with Jessica, a little girl with beautiful long red hair. Eugene said, "Do you need someone to help you put bullets in your gun?" Jessica said, "yes." Eugene said, "I'll help you. Show me the gun and the bullets." At that time, Jessica carefully pulled a handgun from her backpack and emptied her pockets of all kinds of bullets. Then the teachers and principals took Jessica to the office.

      Eugene then realized he wanted to do something to stop children from wanting to hurt others. He wanted to give them a positive influence in their lives. He asked how many children in the class had never been on a train ride. All the children in the class raised their hands. He told them that If they stayed out of trouble, he would give them a ride on the train.

      At that time (many years prior to the Montgomerey KOSS award), Eugene took the children on the train one at a time. 2001, the KOSS (Keep Our Schools Safe) Award was established. During the first year, 24 children were rewarded with a train ride from Tacoma, WA to Portland, OR and back. In 2002, 112 children received rides! In 2003 we gave 140 children rides. We hope to keep growing in the number of kids that receive the award each year.