12th Annual Youth Leadership Awards Dinner
"For twelve years, UCAN has been hosting the annual Youth Leadership Awards Dinner for one reason - these kids up on this stage. These outstanding youth realized that they had an opportunity to make a better life for themselves, and they took it. That is why we're here," said LeeAnn Trotter of NBC 5 Chicago, event emcee.
One June 16th hundreds of people came out for an evening dedicated to the academic and personal achievements of UCAN's youth and to support our vision: Youth who have suffered trauma can become our future leaders. It was an extraordinary evening at the Four Seasons - before dinner, guests mingled with UCAN youth while enjoying a silent auction and reception. Dinner was followed by acceptance speeches by our award winners and an unveiling of UCAN's latest video. To date, we are thrilled to announce we have reached our goal and raised $600,000! Thank you to those of you who helped us reach this amazing level.
To see photos from the evening, scroll down. Here are the highlights:
- Thank you to Harris Bank for partnering with us for this fabulous event! We were pleased with the chance to honor Harris as this year's Corporate Honoree. Harris Bank is truly a great champion of UCAN and is committed to giving back to the Chicago community.
- Our esteemed vice chairs included Keith Cardoza, Jeff and Julie Diermeier, Christopher Gardner, Judith C. Rice, Ron Gidwitz, John E. Rooney, Peter Q. Thompson, and David Vitale.
- Thank you to Colleen Bradley from The PrivateBank and UCAN Diversity Advisory Board member for presenting the John E. Rooney Award on behalf of her father.
- Mellody Hobson of Ariel Investments inspired us all with her keynote speech with a theme of financial literacy and "doing what you can with what you have now," or
taking responsibility and challenging yourself to be the best possible. She captured the crowd by sharing some of her life story and was blown away herself by the stories of our award winners, exclaiming, "Sometimes you wonder why you're here or why you were asked to be a part of something - I was supposed to be here tonight to learn from those UCAN scholars. It's unbelievable to meet people like these young adults. This is real - these kids are incredible!"
Our impressive scholarship recipients Stacey Barr, Kara Bland, Keith Byrd, and Shakina Thompson, in addition to our 2011 John E. Rooney Dynamic Scholar Anthony Holloman, have worked hard to overcome significant obstacles. As they spoke to last night's crowd, they gave us with real hope that our future is in capable hands. Governing Board Member Larry Hayes said, "Our kids are amazing. It's so rewarding to see how far they have come." This is a group of inspiring young leaders, and we are proud to recognize their personal and academic achievements. To read this year's award winners stories, please click here.
A tremendous thank you to all of our incredible attendees and UCAN supporters who have made it possible for us to provide quality programming for the 12,000 children, youth, and families we serve. Thanks to you, we are able to teach our young people the power of their voice and prove that youth who have suffered trauma can become our future leaders.
Check out our videos that we released that night!
