Lorenzo DiMatteo

He may not have one specific moment that he can call inspiring, but that doesn’t diminish Lorenzo DiMatteo’s resolve to get involved.

Which he has done---with friends, sports and community organizations. And he uses that involvement to better the lives of people around him.

People like the kids who come to the Washington County Boys and Girls Club after school. Lorenzo’s dad was a gym supervisor at the club, and found out that they needed teens to come and help the kids with their homework. Soon Lorenzo was there every afternoon he could.

“I was pretty nervous at first,” he admits, “and all the kids were pretty shy. But soon I got attached.”

Lorenzo took his involvement in the after school program a step further when he asked the president of his high school’s National Honor Society to make it their service project. Soon, it wasn’t just Lorenzo helping out at the Boys and Girls Club.

Those kids are not the only people that Lorenzo is dedicated to. He credits his family, his parents and older sister Amanda, as key to who he is and how much he cares.

“Honestly, I don’t know where I’d be without them here for me,” he says.

Just as his family supports him, Lorenzo is there for others. When a friend was diagnosed with cancer, Lorenzo stayed by her side, even shaving his hair as a sign of support.

Lorenzo’s compassion and commitment has not gone without notice. He was recently awarded the 2009 Washington County Youth of the Year award. He received the honor for his work in the after school program, for the way he rallied his friends to put together sports clinics to benefit the Boys and Girls Club, for the drive he uses to play tennis and coach the Green Tree Elementary School Basketball Team.

He’s a leader, hard worker and motivator. Lorenzo is all of that to those around him and more.