Great Stories Awards Night 2019

Our Great Stories Awards Night celebrates the important work of Reach Out & Read Illinois (ROR), a nonprofit organization that helps children get ready for kindergarten by incorporating books into pediatric visits, connecting families to community resources and encouraging families to read together. Reach Out & Read partners with hundreds of clinics and hospital systems across the state and is championed by many prominent Chicago leaders, doctors and health providers.

This year we are honoring Dr. Peter Noronha, a practicing Pediatrician in Chicago for nearly 40 years. He has had a clear passion for the Reach Out & Read program and was one of the first programs to be funded in Illinois 22 years ago! His ROR program at the University of Illinois was started in 1997 and in May 2001, then First Lady Laura Bush chose to visit UIC as part of her efforts to launch her National Initiative “Ready to Read, Ready to Learn” and learned about the ROR program. From 2001 until the present, Dr. Noronha’s ROR program has thrived and in 2006 became an integral part of the Residents continuity clinic and the Healthy Steps program. Dr. Noronha, now semi-retired, is still committed to the program, serving as the coordinator and Medical Director.

In the last three years, ROR UIC has distributed 12,000 new books, is an essential part of the Pediatric Attending Physicians Private Practice clinics and the Pediatric Residents Continuity Clinic. Dr. Noronha personally gives a half-day training to all incoming first year Peds residents. Dr. Noronha and others also conduct collection drives for books and each week place about 40 books in the waiting rooms. As part of Dr. Noronha’s Great Stories Award in 2019, the clinic will receive a $2,000 All About Books donation towards the clinic.

The event is also awarding our first ever Student Leadership Award to Rohan Jain, a junior at the Francis W. Parker High School for his tremendous leadership and support of our work in Illinois. Rohan founded the Community Research and Medicine Club at his high school to better understand health conditions that impact a diverse range of communities, by using research to formulate effective interventions. He established a partnership with Reach Out & Read Illinois in 2017 and has been actively engaging his school community in Reach Out & Read Illinois efforts through outreach and fundraising.

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We are grateful to our sponsors for making this possible.

Judith Neafsey, M.D.

Preethi Raghupatruni, M.D.

Jack Fleming

If you are interested in sponsoring our event, please reach out to Cindy Ogrin, cogrin@reachoutandreadil.org