Students and faculty from the Lombard campus and Florida site gave their time to make sure that children had the supplies and health care support they needed to start the new school year at back-to-school family events.

On August 3, more than 2,300 families attended the Pinellas Park Medical District’s free Back-to-School Family Fun day at the Caruth Health Education Center. “We are excited to have exceeded our extremely ambitious goal to give away over 1,000 backpacks this year,” said NUHS ̶ Florida site Dean Daniel Strauss, DC (right in photo), chairman of the Pinellas Park Medical District, who also MC’d the event. NUHS clinician Erika Hackett, DC; Student Services Representative Michelle Bell; interns Alicia Irvin and Cameron Sutherland; and 1st trimester students Ayla Osborne and Tausha Schaublin gave their time for the event that featured health- and school-related vendors and school supply donations, including 150 bike helmets. Six lucky children also won bikes in a raffle. “I’m incredibly proud of our NUHS team for the work they did to help make this event a great success,” Dr. Strauss added.

NUHS faculty members Amanda Bose, DC, ND, and Joseph Vazquez, ND, participated in an annual Family Wellness and Back to School Fair on August 8, hosted by Illinois state and local government officials, including Senator Iris Martinez, one of the sponsors of the Naturopathic Physician Licensure bill in the State of Illinois. Dr. Bose and Dr. Vazquez provided information about NUHS’ naturopathic services and educated parents about naturopathic medicine. Children also received free school bags and were able to get immunizations, vision screenings and dental services at the event.

“This community is primarily a low income Hispanic population that is in need of access to health services,” Dr. Bose explained. “Parents were interested in using natural modalities of treatment for their children.”