Hey everyone : ]

 My name is Thorin Loeks, I am a 23 year old musician/adventurer/borther/son/friend with a dream to film a documentary about happiness and what people find meaningful in their lives while paddling down the Mississippi River from Lake Itasca to New Orleans this coming summer with my Ukranian-American paddling partner and friend Ilya Kulchitskiy (http://letslivelikewemeanit.tumblr.com/). We also, over the 3 months of paddling, hope to raise money for youth empowerment initiatives. The one here that we would like to fundraise for and recommend is a grassroots organization called "Teen Journey", who take youth abroad to experience the world and make empowering and enriching connections with people from other backgrounds, within group intiatives, and within themselves. The video you've likely saw now is of Zamir, one of the founders of Teen Journey talking about many the benefits of the program.

In their own words: "Teen Journey is a Vancouver-based non profit organization created to empower youth with a vision of interconnectedness, as members of a global village that live from the heart with passion and purpose. Founded on the established research and time-tested practices blending indigenous wisdom with the human potential movement, Teen Journey is a transformational program for youth in search of inner guidance. Led by local and international leaders in the fields or arts, science, and personal development, Teen Journey participants learn the value of self-inquiry as a means to change themselves and the world around them."

If you are further interested in other past, present, and future intiatives Teen Journey has been involved in or would like to contact them, please check out their website at:

http://teenjourney.org/

Thank you all for your generosity, thoughtfulness, and consideration,

Thor and Ilya