Northwestern Memorial News Blog

Green thumbs – both old and young – pitched in to plant a new rooftop garden on top of the Bernice E. Lavin Early Childhood Education Center on June 12. The center, the largest employer-sponsored childcare center in the city, benefits Northwestern Memorial families as well as those of campus partners.

A group of about 15 adult students from the Chicago Botanic Garden paired up with the center’s 90 kindergarteners and preschool-aged children to plant cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, peppers, strawberries, herbs and beans. While they planted, the children also learned about composting and later released lady bugs into the soil to keep the plants healthy. The Chicago Botanic Garden students volunteered their time and gardening expertise to teach this next generation of gardeners the importance of growing fresh fruits and vegetables.

This rooftop garden was possible thanks to Lori and Rick Hannon, Hitchcock Design Group, Moore Landscape, the Chicago Botanic Garden and the childcare center.

Northwestern Medicine hepatologist Sean Koppe, MD, and vascular surgeon James Yao, MD, are part of a community effort to raise awareness about Hepatitis B in Chicago. Koppe recently spoke at a Daley Plaza rally to promote Hepatitis B screenings and vaccinations, especially among the Asian-American population.

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver and more than half of the estimated 1.4 million to 2 million people infected in the United States are Asian American. Asian Americans are nearly three times more likely to develop liver cancer than Americans of non-Asian descent.  A significant number – up to 75 percent – of  those infected remain untested, untreated and unvaccinated.