Evening of Impact 2024

On behalf of our event Co-Chairs, Lucero Castellanos and Madeline Gryll, Resilience is thrilled to invite you to our largest and most celebrated event of the year, Evening of Impact 2024: Growth, Gratitude, and 50 Years of Empowering Survivors on May 30, 2024, at Galleria Marchetti.

Supporters, donors, community partners, allies, staff, volunteers, and more will come together to celebrate, socialize, and raise funds for Resilience. We'll be joined by a variety of dynamic guest speakers to enjoy hors d'oeuvres, cocktails, dinner, a program, a silent auction, a raffle, a presentation of the Dr. Natalie A. Stephens Visionary Award, and more. All proceeds from Evening of Impact support Resilience's vision of preventing sexual violence and providing client-centered and trauma-informed services so that these services remain completely free to survivors and their loved ones who come to Resilience to heal. This energetic evening will be full of hope, comradery, and optimism for what we can achieve together in this movement. 

Our theme this year, "Growth, Gratitude, and 50 Years of Empowering Survivors", honors our community's ongoing and tireless support for survivors of sexual violence. In the face of much adversity over the years, including the pandemic and funding cuts, our theme speaks to Resilience's unwavering commitment to empowering survivors and ending sexual violence. Together, our community of supporters accomplishes positive change for survivors because of our resilience.

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

2024 VISIONARY AWARD RECIPIENT, MARION BROOKS

The Dr. Natalie A. Stephens Visionary Award recognizes the work of far-sighted leaders who have made a powerful and lasting impact on the movement to end sexual violence. The award is named in honor of our late founder, Dr. Natalie A. Stephens, who, together with ten medical and nursing students, founded Rape Victim Advocates in 1974. Resilience is honored to celebrate award-winning anchor and reporter at NBC 5, Marion Brooks, at Evening of Impact.

Visionary Award Recipient, Marion Brooks
 

Marion Brooks is an award-winning anchor and reporter at NBC 5. She anchors the NBC 5 News at 11 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. each weekday and is a member of the NBC 5 Investigates team.  She has also co-hosted the NBC 5 production of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon since 2017.

Brooks' passion is for reporting and storytelling. In her investigative work she has been drawn to social and criminal justice issues. That focus inspired her to update and add context to the story of Emmett Till in the documentary, The Lost Story of Emmett Till: The Universal Child. 

In the wake of the racial unrest after the murder of George Floyd, Brooks spearheaded NBC 5's Race In Chicago initiatives.  The multi-platform project included Say the Word, Say the Name, a digital series of first-person accounts of experiences with racism, as well as a reading of names of people who died in racially motivated killings.  The initiative also included a series of television stories. The Race in Chicago television special(s) earned Brooks and her co-producers national recognition from the National Alliance for Women in Media (Gracie).

Her series of reports on Sex Trafficking in Chicago has earned her several awards including a national Gracie and a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television and Digital News Association (RTDNA).

Her investigative work on sexual violence issues led to NBCChicago.com's Survivor's Project.  That project featured brave survivors of sexual violence sharing what happened to them, but also how they persevered and grew strong enough to own the narrative of their experience.  The project was recognized by the RTDNA with a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award and the Illinois Broadcasters Association's Silver Dome Award.

Brooks joined NBC5 in 1998 as a weekend anchor from Atlanta, Ga., where she also served as an anchor/reporter at WSB-TV.

Her career has spanned over several regions and market sizes in the country. Beginning at the Sarasota Herald Tribune in Sarasota, Fla., Brooks learned the advertising side of journalism in a management training program for the New York Times Newspaper Group.

Her first job in broadcasting was in radio at WGST, a news talk station in Atlanta, in the entry level type of job that exposed her to the long hours, hard work, and adrenaline rushes of newsgathering. She credits this experience with solidifying her desire to work as a journalist.

Her first television job took her to one of the poorest regions in the country, the Mississippi Delta. From there her career wound through markets around the country with stops in Jacksonville, Fla., St. Louis, Mo., Atlanta, Ga., and ultimately Chicago.

Host Committee

Lucero Castellanos, Co-Chair
Madeline Gryll, Co-Chair
Mark Cohen
Kate Meyer
Saarah Ahmad Shaikh
Sarah Wallace

Silent Auction Committee

Jenny Zale, Chair

Briana Brown
Josephine Cahill
Jillian Furey
Leigh Hare
Naomi Thornton
Sadie Tournour

ABOUT EVENING OF IMPACT

Evening of Impact is Resilience's largest annual gathering inviting donors, partners, friends, and allies to celebrate our impact in the lives of survivors and our continued work to create a world free of sexual assault, abuse, and harassment. Proceeds from the evening go toward supporting Resilience's programs and services, helping to ensure that survivors and their communities continue to have access to vital resources and a place to heal.

For more information: please contact Jennifer Zale, Director of Advancement at [email protected]