Nick Cannon Hosts HALO Awards, Where Celebs Honor Philanthropic Teens

TeenNick's HALO Awards aired Friday night, focusing on an often undereported credit to our society; philanthropic teens. HALO stands for "helping and leading others." This is just what the four inspiring HALO Award recipients have been doing, using perseverance and life experience to build the foundation of their good works. Some of their stories were so heartbreaking, it was astonishing to see that they could overcome what life had dealt them with such force.

In awards show twist, host Nick Cannon tracked down the TeenNick HALO winners. Celebrities were on standby to give the receipients their awards, a $10,000 scholarship, $10,000 for their charities, a baton-like HALO award and the memories of a lifetime.

The first HALO award winner was Leah Stoltz. The 17-year-old was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11. At age 14 she founded the support group CurvyGirls of Long Island. First Nick Cannon rides in to Leah's high school pep rally on a skateboard, where she believes she is being filmed for a TeenNick documentary. A stunned Leah is called front and center, to be honored in front of the whole school.

Leah is then taken to Las Vegas to meet Justin Timberlake. He invites the HALO award recipient to his Shriner golf tournament, gives her tickets and backstage passes to his show. Timberlake gives Leah her HALO award at the golf tournament.

The show turns somber as basketbal star LeBron James gives 19-year-old Darrius Snow's sad back story. Darius grew up in Atlanta, in one of the most violent neighborhoods in the country. Darius was abandoned as a child. LeBron relates with Darrius using sports to take control of his life and rise up above his situation. He was the first in his family to graduate high school and go to college. Darrius teaches kids in his neighborhood step team, through his cause The B-Team.

Nick Cannon finds Darrius at step practice and presents him with his cash prizes. Darius is then swept off to Akron, Ohio, to meet LeBron James. They go to a movie premiere, a community basketball event and do a bike-a-thon. Here LeBron calls Darius onstage to recieve his HALO Award.

Nick Cannon then gets a message from Heroes actress Hayden Paniettiere, who clues us into Megan Kilroy. Megan is the captain of the Marine Team, a group of environmentally dedicated students. She is an enviromentally concious 17-year-old, who cleans up ocean beaches and gets involved with community activism by organizing rallies.

Nick Cannon shows up at Santa Monica, CA on a surf board (well falls off). It happens to be Coastal Clean-Up Day and he surprises Megan on the beach. He takes her to spend the day with Hayden Paniettiere. They

as a baby Bryan was injected by his father with tainted HIV blood, according to the Washington Post.

Sources:

http://www.teennick.com/halo/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/10/AR2009121003945.html