Highlights from buildOn Breakfast 2012

Photos by Andrew Collings

At Chicago’s buildOn Breakfast 2012, we raised nearly $400,000 to support quality afterschool programs that keep youth engaged in school and empower them to change their neighborhoods. Over 600 people were in attendance; and we couldn’t have done it without the support of our sponsors and our amazing volunteers, including our buildOn students who greeted attendees and shared their passionate stories about buildOn’s programs.

The morning included a moving speech from buildOn’s Founder & CEO, Jim Ziolkowski, about how our national and international programs are igniting “fires” in people through service and education. We also heard a personal story about breaking the cycle of poverty from Brittni Pratt, a buildOn program member, who said buildOn gave her the strength to be a defender of peace, and a humanitarian. The highlight of the breakfast was having Laura Ricketts, co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, present Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White with buildOn’s Global Leadership Award for his commitment to serving youth and making a social impact in Chicago. White ended his speech with, “Love your fellow man and woman. Do something good for someone every day.”

Read more about what happened yesterday here. Look at all of our Breakfast photos in our Flickr account, and Read Pratt’s speech in tomorrow’s blog.