Seniors Paige O’Shaughnessy and Emma Pollak were two of 23 students from eight Legislative Districts who received the Suffolk County Legislature’s Distinguished Youth Award.  

The DYA program challenges the county’s youth to become more civically involved and to focus on activities they not only enjoy, but for which they would like to improve a skill. The program focuses on meeting goals in four separate categories: volunteer service, personal development, exploration and physical fitness. 

Paige, who received a Gold Award, completed the community service portion of the program as part of her Girl Scout Gold Award in which she made 125 Courage Caps out of donated t-shirts for New York Cancer and Blood Center patients. To ensure the sustainability of the program, she also took time to teach younger scouts how to make the caps. As part of the exploration category, Paige visited and journaled about 15 Suffolk County parks, alongside Silver award winner and friend Emma Pollak. She also tried out for the school’s volleyball team for the athletic category and scored a 99 out of 100 at the New York State School Music Association festival on flute (Level 5) for the personal development category.  

Emma, who received a Silver Award, similarly visited and journaled about 15 Suffolk County parks for the DYA program’s exploration category. Her personal development project included learning to play a Disney “Aladdin” song on the piano, which she admitted was extremely challenging. Emma also donated 100 hours of volunteer service to St. Charles Hospital for her community service requirement. After much rehab on an injured ankle, Emma also competed in gymnastics at the state level to complete the athletic category. 

The district congratulates both Paige and Emma on this outstanding achievement.