If ever a teenager was “wise beyond her years,” it’s Mallory Lynch. Begin with the wisdom she’s earned in the classroom:

By Mitch Silver

If ever a teenager was “wise beyond her years,” it’s Mallory Lynch. Begin with the wisdom she’s earned in the classroom: Mallory has won departmental honors in Chemistry and Spanish; she’s mastered AP courses in Calculus, Statistics, History, Chemistry, and Psychology; and excelled in the Syracuse University college-level course in CSI-type Forensics.

Of course, academic achievement is only the beginning. For the Rye Lions Club and the Rye High Athletic Department to name you Athlete of the Month, you also must be a standout on the field of play. Check, double-check, and triple-check. In the fall, Mallory is an all-League Field Hockey player as well as a two-year captain of the team that made it, once again, to the Sectional finals. In the winter, she’s earned three varsity letters in Squash, participating in the National Championships each year. And she has three more varsity letters for the Garnets’ Lacrosse team in the spring.

Clearly, Mallory is a gifted athlete. But her real wisdom comes through in the life lessons she’s learned. “I was a summer camp counselor at one of the beach clubs a year ago, and a volunteer counselor at Port Chester’s Carver Center this past summer. I worked with children of about the same age both times, but the experience was entirely different. The club kids took it for granted that they’d be waited on hand and foot, while the underprivileged children were appreciative of every thing you did with them…just your being there. Everything was ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.”

She went on, “It really stops you to think that just five miles away, children are growing up with so little when my friends and I have so much.”

Mallory’s volunteering activities take up much of her spare time. In addition to the Carver Center, she prepares and serves meals in Port Chester through Food 2 Grow On and coaches local girls in field hockey and lacrosse. And she doesn’t stop at humans. Every month, the Lynches take in two to three puppies as part of their early training to be Seeing Eye and Healing Autism dogs. “Our job,” she said, “is to introduce them to the new sights and sounds they’ll encounter in the future.”

So, how did she feel when she learned she’d won this award?  “I was really shocked. And flattered. But this really isn’t an individual award; in a team sport, your  teammates are everything.”