And the award goes to...

Smithtown High School East 10th grader Louis Schmettan Jr. was recently honored with the Distinguished Youth Award and recognized by the Suffolk County Legislature. He was the ONLY student in Suffolk County's 13th Legislative District to receive the prestigious award!

As part of the award requirements, Louis visited and journaled about 15 Suffolk County parks and completed a minimum of 100 hours on a personal development project.

For his project, Louis took his passion for writing to the next level, completing two novels totaling more than 350 pages. He hopes to have the novels published later this year.

Congratulations, Louis!