The childhood photos of former Boys & Girls Clubs of America" members Denzel Washington, Shaquille O'Neal, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and others are featured in a new ad campaign for the organization, titled "BE GREAT."

The new effort officially kicked off Wednesday in the Nation's Capital with Washington on hand to explain how the advocacy campaign aims to make America's young people a top priority.

"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, a national spokesman for the organization, addressed reporters as a large blowup ad featuring a photo of himself in the second grade hung behind him.

"A handsome young man that is," he said of the picture. "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."

Reprinted with permission from www.eurweb.com