🔑 Just Pass Me the Keys: How Lauren Todd Built a Coast to Coast Real Estate Business

🎓 Nassau's Top 20 High Schools for 2026-27, Ranked

🚒 West Sayville's Junior Firefighters Just Won Best in New York

🎬 Lights, Camera, Sayville: Inside Long Island's First International Film Festival

There's a specific kind of relief in handing someone the keys and walking away. Not because you don't care what happens to your home, but because you trust the person holding them completely. That's the feeling Lauren Todd is going for with every client, and by the sound of her track record, she's getting there.

Lauren didn't start out chasing real estate. She trained as a special education teacher, studying applied behavior analysis and spending years in a classroom in Queens before her daughter Reese was born and something in her shifted. She and her family moved to California so she could stay home, and once her daughter turned two, Lauren admitted to herself she missed using her brain. Real estate felt like a low commitment way back in, maybe a home or two a year on the side. Instead, word spread fast about how she negotiated for her clients, one referral led to another, and by 2020 she needed to hire an assistant just to keep up. What was supposed to be part time had quietly become a thriving full-time business, on top of raising two kids.

Family and friends back in New York started calling for advice, so Lauren got dual licensed in both states rather than keep referring people out to agents she didn't fully trust. Today she runs teams on both coasts and specializes in exactly the moments that feel most overwhelming: young families ready to upgrade, and older homeowners trying to downsize out of a house they've lived in for decades. She calls her approach an individualized plan, a phrase pulled straight from her teaching days, where every buyer or seller gets a strategy built around their specific finances and emotional readiness, not a one size fits all checklist.

Lauren doesn't just list your house and walk away either. She brings in trusted painters and junk removal crews, walks you through what will actually move the needle on your sale price, and keeps her clients' stress low enough that they can think clearly. Her real specialty is prepping a home to sell, she once spent an entire year working with a client before ever listing the house. Her philosophy comes down to one line she repeats often: just pass me the keys, I'll take care of the rest.

Every year Lauren throws something called Dumpsters and Donuts, where she rents an actual dumpster and invites clients, friends, and family to come clear out whatever's been sitting in the garage too long, then grab a donut with her while they're at it. It's the kind of event that only makes sense once you understand how much of her job is really about helping people let go of stuff.

Find Lauren on Instagram at Lauren Loves Long Island, or reach her directly by phone or text, her preferred way to connect with new clients.

Proof that the same instincts that make a good teacher, patience, a plan for every kid in the room, translate perfectly to guiding a family through one of the biggest moves of their life.

U.S. News & World Report dropped its newest Best High Schools rankings this week, and Nassau County came out swinging. Thirteen Nassau schools landed in New York's top 100, with South Side High School in Rockville Centre leading the county at No. 8 statewide, followed by North Shore Senior High in Glen Head and Locust Valley High School rounding out the top three.

The rankings lean heavily on AP and IB performance, state test proficiency, and how well schools serve underserved students relative to expectations, not just raw test scores. Long Beach, Jericho, Great Neck South, Garden City, and Syosset all cracked the county's top eight, giving families across the South Shore and North Shore plenty to brag about at back to school night.

Add in nine strong Suffolk County high schools and Long Island claims 22 spots among the state's top 100, a reminder that whatever else is going on around here, the Island's public schools keep punching above their weight. The full rankings run all the way down through MacArthur High in Levittown at No. 191 statewide.

👉 Read more: Greater Long Island

Out of more than 1,800 volunteer fire departments across New York State, it's the kids from West Sayville who just got called the best at building the next generation. The Firefighters Association of the State of New York named the West Sayville Junior Fire Department its Youth Group of the Year, beating out hundreds of departments that run similar junior programs.

The junior firefighters, most of them teenagers, train regularly, run fundraisers, and turn out for community service throughout the year, all while learning the ropes of a department with roots stretching back to 1895. It's a pipeline that keeps volunteer fire service alive on Long Island at a time when recruitment is a real struggle for departments across the region.

The recognition landed the same summer the group's racing team placed fifth in the statewide drill contest, further proof that West Sayville's approach to training young volunteers is paying off in more ways than one. For a department built almost entirely on people who show up because they want to, that's a pretty good stretch.

👉 Read more: Long Island Press

Sayville just proved a hometown can throw a film festival with real Hollywood wattage. The inaugural Sayville International Film Festival wrapped its four day run with a closing awards gala, capping off a weekend that screened dozens of films at the historic Sayville Theater and honored hometown icons Paula Hart and Melissa Joan Hart with the festival's first ever Vanguard Legacy Award.

Founded by Sayville native and Producers Guild of America member Maria Capp, the festival was built to bridge more than a decade of her Los Angeles industry connections with the community she grew up in. Acting honors went to Shauna Grace for Best Actress and Tommy Nash for Best Actor, and a live pitch competition gave emerging filmmakers, including entrants from Farmingdale and East Setauket, a shot in front of real industry judges.

As a nonprofit, SIFF's inaugural run also doubled as its biggest fundraiser yet, with proceeds going toward vocational opportunities for up and coming filmmakers. If the buzz from this first year is any indication, Sayville just added itself to the map for anyone chasing a career behind or in front of the camera.

👉 Read more: Long Island Press

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