Grace Lyons, a senior at Abington Senior High School, was recently recognized by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) as the recipient of the 2024 Youth Mental Health Leadership Award, the district announced earlier this week.

Lyons submitted an essay on the impact of mental health and was selected as the only recipient from Pennsylvania.

She was publicly recognized at the Child, Adolescent and Transition-Age Youth Mental Health Conference, which was held on February 2 in Pittsburgh. The award included a $1000 scholarship.

From the district’s announcement:

Grace served as a part of our inaugural Perfect Blend internship program during the first semester, where she worked with the ACTIVE Academy students each morning in serving the student body snacks and refreshments. She is currently participating in the Unified Partners Internship in which she is working with members of the Special Education population during their Physical Education class. We appreciate all that Grace has done for the Abington community and wish her a huge congratulations on her achievements!

In related news, the Abington Senior High School boys’ basketball team defeated Cheltenham High School 70-57 Friday night in a first-round matchup in the Suburban One League playoffs.

“It was a very intense game,” Abington coach Dan Marsh told Suburban One Sports. “We controlled the game pretty much the whole time, but they made a couple of runs at us like we knew they would, and we were able to persevere through it.”

Abington (18-5, 12-4) will travel to top-seeded Upper Dublin on Saturday for a 1:00pm contest. Cheltenham (17-6, 14-2) is 12th in the latest District 1 6A power rankings and is off until next Friday’s opening round of districts.

For all the latest news, follow us on Facebook or sign up for Glenside Local’s “Daily Buzz” newsletter here.

Photo: ASHS