Two Effingham County teens graduated from the National Guard-sponsored  Youth Challenge Academy on Dec. 19 at commencement ceremonies in Macon.

Thomas Moore of Rincon and James Webb of Guyton were among 209 graduates of the Fort Stewart-based Youth Challenge Academy who successfully completed the 22-week, in residence program for at-risk youth.

The National Guard Youth Challenge Program helps to reclaim the lives of at-risk youth to produce successful graduates with the values, skills, education and self-discipline necessary to succeed as adults.

Youth Challenge Program is a preventive rather than remedial program, targeting youth who are unemployed, drug-free and law-free high-school dropouts, 16 to 18 years of age.

Georgia has two Youth Challenge Academy campuses, the original at Fort Stewart near Savannah, and a second at Fort Gordon near Augusta.  Since its first graduating class in 1993, Youth Challenge boasts of more than 10,000 graduates.