The Boys and Girls Clubs all around the country have always been somewhat of a safe haven for urban youth. It's where most of us who have children, send them after school if we can't pick them up on time. It's where are kids learn a sport, or a craft, and start to really form ideals as to who they are and can be.Denzel Washington, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Martin Sheen, Wesley Clark and Shaquille O'Neal, all of whom attended the Boys & Girls Clubs of America as children, have lent their childhood photos to the organization for a national advertising campaign.
Washington unveiled the "BE GREAT" campaign Wednesday, asking people to volunteer to help at their local clubs.
"What's going on with children doesn't worry me. What's going on with adults worries me. If we are not more committed to these young people ... they will go as far as we take them, so the onus is on us, not on the children," Washington told reporters. "We've created this world for them, we are the ones that fall and we are the ones that can rectify it."
Washington displayed a campaign ad featuring a photo of himself from the second grade. In the headshot, he's clad in a collared shirt, tie and blazer - much like he was dressed at the event.
>"A handsome young man that is," he said. "I have to give credit where credit is due, that begins with my mother not only for giving me life and faith and so much support, but also digging up this photo."
The Academy Award winner, who is national spokesman for the organization, attended a Boys & Girls Club as a child in New York.
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