Colleen Williams and the Bobby Jones Trio, one Western New York's most talked about jazz groups, lent a helping hand to the local chapter of Teen2Teen, playing to a full-house at the ATA Theatre in Williamsville Saturday evening. William's sultry voice immediately grabbed the audience's attention, drawing them into her cabaret style of jazz and blues. She was, in a word, amazing, and made the evening a memorable one for all who attended the event.

Teen2Teen is a collaboration between the program's two visionaries: locally, Dina Sarno Slawson, and in New York City, Philip MacAdoo. Both Slawson and MacAdoo had developed programs aimed at uniting two socially and economically diverse groups of teens, providing them a stage on which to celebrate their hopes and dreams, fears and apprehensions, differences and commonalities. They came together in 2005, merging Slawson's local Academy Outreach with MacAdoo's NYC based Xpand program, and after months of intensive planning Teen2Teen...Theatre is for Life was born.

The program enables youth from both Western New York and New York City to experience each other's lives both on and off stage, as they participate in programs and events together, in New York and Buffalo. Workshops are held in NYC and culminate in on-stage performances by members and instructors, many of whom are Broadway headliners interested in the cause.

The innovative program has also caught the eyes and ears of local business leaders, as well as some high profile benefactors in New York City, and is quickly taking on a life of its own, with additional chapters being planned for Buffalo, and Saratoga Springs.

In addition, Teen2Teen has been invited to perform in Los Angeles, at a World Wide Teen Summit this year, and will travel globally to participate in a planned celebration of youth next summer.

"Teen2Teen has been one of the most rewarding and self-satisfying ventures I've ever had the privilege to be part of, and has changed my life significantly", Slawson confesses, "and I know it will dramatically enhance the lives of many others who will be touched by the power of its message of hope and understanding."

For more information about Teen2Teen, please contact Teen2Teen WNY President, Dina Sarno Slawson at (716) 689-0077.