The Grammy- and Oscar-winning actress and singer was in Bridgeport on Wednesday for the unveiling of a charity partnership with 7-Eleven to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. The group provides after-school activities for kids.

Hudson designed a cup with the theme "Light of Peace" featuring a drawing of a candle and her signature. The cup will sell nationally for about $2 in the quick-stop stores, with the Boys and Girls Clubs guaranteed at least $250,000, according to 7-Eleven officials.

Hudson said she picked the charity to reap the windfall from the second installment in the chain's Cup With A Cause effort--in which celebrities design cups to benefit organizations of their choice--because of how the club helped her as a child.

"[I] did one of my very first talent shows--and I won--as a little girl at the Boys and Girls Club," she said. "It helped me realize that much more what I wanted to do."

Hudson stayed at the Louis L. Valentine Boys and Girls Club near 34th Street and Emerald Avenue on the South Side for about two hours, taking pictures and dispensing advice and hugs. Urging the roughly 250 members of Chicago-area Boys and Girls Clubs in attendance to complete their educations, Hudson told the kids the importance of a good attitude.

"Everybody thinks just because you have the talent" things come easily, she said afterward. "You have to be prepared for what's in store, what's out there in the world."

Jeffrey Sadowski, vice president of operations for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago, called the day "an amazing, very memorable experience."

"We knew that she was a wonderful individual," Sadowski said. "We just didn't know that she was so personable."