Ludacris Honored By National Runaway Switchboard

By: Janine Coveney

The National Runaway Switchboard in Chicago announced on Monday, February 26th, that Ludacris'Ludacris Foundation will be receiving their "Spirit of Youth" award. After recording his hit, "Runaway Love" featuring Mary J. Blige, Ludacris partnered with NRS to address some of the issues facing young runaways.

Maureen Blaha, NRS executive director, said via statement, "The timing could not have been better with November's National Runaway Prevention Month. Since the release of 'Runaway Love'Ludacris'and The Foundation's commitment to helping runaway youth and letting people know about the help they can receive by calling 1-800-RUNAWAY has only increased."

Ludacris and his mother, Robert Shields, who is the President of the Ludacris Foundation, will be honored with the Spirit of Youth awards on Thursday, November 1st in Chicago

In related news, Ludacris is still mourning the death of his father, Wayne Bridges, who died in an Atlanta hospital on February 25th.

After performing with Earth, Wind & Fire at the Grammy Awards earlier this month, Ludacris shared how important his father was to his musical development. The rapper said: "I'm sure a lot of you noticed I mentioned my father when I was on stage when I won my award tonight. And my father is the reason why I have a lot of the musical ability that I have and a lot of the musical influences."

The rapper added: "'Cause when I was very young, he used to play a lot of genres of music and one of his favorite groups was Earth, Wind & Fire.