Transcript for 'GMA Day' surprises talented YMCA teen with $10,000 after he sings in Times Square

born in to can determine your future. Our sponsor the ymca believes everyone deserves the opportunity to grow no matter who you are or where you're from. They provide programs like the David Matthews composition school at the ymca in greater Erie, Pennsylvania. Joining us now is the ymca team director Corey Cooke. He was featured in a story on "Gma". One of the participants of the program is here singing his own original song called "Steal your heart." Please give it up for Elijah Lyons. ??? I'm not thief but I see that there's no other way I need your heart today ??? ??? no time to waste ??? ??? tell me what you want tell me what you need ??? ??? I'll give my heart and soul just for you to see if you need me ??? ??? I'll be here for you but I can't see what's inside ??? ??? won't you let me into your heart ??? ??? you're the one that I need ??? ??? let me steal your heart ??? Come on over, man. Great job. That was beautiful, Elijah. Come sit here. Oh, man. Original, original. Great job, by the way. Thank you. It was amazing. Corey, you're the program director for the ymca. You also work with the David Matthews composition school. Tell us why this was so important to you. This project is purely a community effort. It was the ymca David Matthews composition school and John Lyons productions. It was a community effort. We were able to come together with people that are great with what they do and make a project like this happen. Elijah, you're a participant in the school. How has it impacted you? It's impacted me in a very large way. I've been -- it taught me -- it showed me that music was my passion. I used to be really shy. I love singing and being on stage. I think the David Matthews composition school showed me that music is what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. For a shy guy you just performed on national television. That's pretty cool. Expressing himself through music. That's how you do it. How do you think music will play a role in your future? I think it's going to have a very large role. I've been writing music for myself since I was in the sixth grade. I want to continue to be an artist and write music for myself, maybe write music for other artists. I want music to take me to a place where I can be an inspiration for the other kids in my city. I love that. You got great news about school for next year. I was accepted into the new York conservatory for dramatic arts. You ought to be proud of yourself. You gotta feel proud. Just a little bit. Corey, you've got to feel good about that as well. Definitely. When this program started it was always the vision and the goal. This program has instilled hope and inspiration into the community we come from. We've been showing a lot of kids in our region back home, a lot of adults. You can be from the lower east side of Erie and you can have a large impact and make it to something like this where you're telling the world about what you're doing. Elijah, we're really proud of you. We wanted to give you a little something. We wanted to make a donation towards your tuition next year to help you out. We're making a $10,000 donation to help you pursue those dreams. That's yours. Thank you. This isn't the actual check you take to the bank. Okay. We wanted to help you out. We're all proud of you. We're all very happy for you. We want to see you succeed. You're an example for so many kids out there. I'm sure you'll continue to be. Thank you very much for being here. Our sponsor the ymca is a leading nonprofit and the largest provider of child care in the country. It provides hundreds of educational, social and health programs across the U.S. Tomorrow is giving Tuesday. Visit goodmorningamerica.com to see how you can help your local ymca.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.