We started the morning with a quick flight to Detroit to visit with the teens of Art Jam of Detroit–an after school mentoring program aimed at inner city youth– which gives them hands on experience and education with a variety of visual and performance arts.  At a difficult time economically and under hard circumstances, these teens have chosen a positive outlet for their creative energies and have simultaneously built their own little community to encourage each others talents.

From Detroit, we flew back to Chicago to meet up with a South Side teenage filmmaker.  17-year-old Terrence Thompson uses his talents in film making to mentor other South Side youth, thereby giving them a voice and empowering them to tell their stories from a personalized perspective.  Terrence’s future behind the camera is limitless, and while he acknowledges the likelihood that he will leave Chicago to hone his skills, his sense of responsibility to serving his community runs so deeply that he plans on one day returning to Chicago to use his talents for the betterment of the South Side community in which he was raised.  Poetry, cinematography, production: Terrence Thompson’s boundless talents may only be eclipsed by his sense of duty to those he mentors and the community he loves.

From Chicago, we flew down south to the Nashville area.  Tomorrow we will highlight two Nashville area youths who are hiking the entire Appalachian Trail to raise money and awareness for a cause dear to them.  Stay tuned to the blog, Twitter, and our Facebook account for all the details.  From Nashville we will head to Atlanta–as we get one step closer to our NYC finale on September 12th, the National Day of Encouragement.