ATLANTIC CITY--- Thursday nights candlelight vigil was meant to recognize the estimated 1 million young people who are homeless in this country each night, and to celebrate Covenant House Atlantic City's 20th year of operation.

"...We had a van, that's all," said Ray Ellis, referring to the organizations first year of operation in Atlantic City, "....we'd pick the kids up, the Rescue Mission would help us out, we didn't have any facilities at all, we had an office at St. James and the boardwalk, no electricity, no heat."

Currently, the Atlantic City location houses approximately 55 young people, plus some small children, every night, and also offers health care, educational and vocational counseling, drug and alcohol abuse treatment and prevention, along with several other programs.

"...Probably in the street with no hope," was how LeChanda Rollines answered the question of where she would be without Covenant House.

Abandoned by her father, the Atlantic City teen said she lived on the street for over a year before coming to the facility, "....since I've been here I've graduated nursing school, I've received a scholarship, full time, for a school in Pennsylvania, and things have been going good."

In 2008, Covenant House Atlantic City reached over 1,400 homeless young people in the area.