The Soho Center & UVA Children’s Hospital

Through a longstanding partnership with UVA Health Children’s, the Soho Center gives away about 7,000 books each month to children at UVA to provide happiness and promote literacy for our youngest patients and their siblings. Regardless of whether a patient comes for a yearly check-up or for extended medical treatment, they’ll head home with a new story to read and share.

Books help calm fears and make wait times pass more quickly. Whether it’s Curious George or Tucker Mouse, the characters from cherished books take young patients to imaginary new worlds beyond the hospital’s or clinic’s walls. And that’s the point.

“Everything Soho does is a labor of love,” says Jeanna Beker, founder and director of the Soho Center. “Decades ago, my husband George and I decided that Soho would offer free programs and services and help tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of children each year. That’s exactly what we do every year—with the help of very generous donors, innovative partnerships with nonprofits and agencies, and a diverse group of supportive individuals and organizations.”

In 2018 alone, UVA Health Children’s recorded more than 101,677 outpatient visits and 4,439 inpatient stays. That’s more than 105,000 books last year alone!