Wilmington Wellness Classroom

My name is Avi Kapoor, and I founded Wilmington Wellness Classroom in February 2025, during my sophomore year of high school.

The idea began while I was volunteering with Horizons Wilmington, a program that supports underserved children through an educational summer program and provides community programming for children and families throughout the school year. During my time there, I saw firsthand how students and families could benefit from greater access to reliable, understandable health education. I began reaching out to local healthcare organizations and physicians to explore ways to bring health education directly into the community. In February 2025, those efforts led to our first session, where a physician from ChristianaCare and I delivered a health education lesson to more than 100 parents attending a Horizons family event.

From there, our adult and family programming expanded into recurring monthly sessions at locations including Tower Hill School and the Market Street Library. We grew attendance through Horizons families sharing the program within their school communities, healthcare professionals from ChristianaCare referring colleagues and patients, and flyers we distributed at each location. This outreach also helped us build an email list to announce upcoming sessions and gather suggestions for future health topics. Together, these efforts broadened our reach across underserved communities in Wilmington and started putting us into areas in southern Pennsylvania. As this work developed, so did our range of community partners. Partnerships with organizations such as Designs for Health and the Health Literacy Council of Delaware have helped provide valuable resources and support for our programs.

 

In the summer of 2025, Wilmington Wellness Classroom expanded its work with Horizons into children's health education. During the Horizons Summer Camp, I partnered with physicians from Nemours Children's Health to jointly develop and present health education lessons on over 20 topics. This partnership has continued throughout the school year, with Wilmington Wellness Classroom and Nemours physicians continuing to develop and deliver age-appropriate health and wellness lessons during Horizons' monthly programming for children.

In addition to our educational programming, we also organize donation drives to collect essential items and personal care products for families participating in our programs. These efforts are made possible with the support of volunteers, many of whom are high school students and members of the Horizons community, who help collect, organize, and prepare donations for distribution to families who need them most.

 

Today, Wilmington Wellness Classroom continues to provide recurring health education sessions for adults and families, lessons during the Horizons Summer Camp, and monthly health and wellness programming for Horizons children throughout the school year. At the same time, we are working to expand through new partnerships with healthcare professionals, community organizations, and volunteers. Looking ahead, in the upcoming year, we are planning on bringing this model to new areas across the country, beginning with similar partnerships with local Horizons programs and then expanding outward to serve the broader communities around them.