RED WING, Minn. (KTTC) – Reach Out and Read announced earlier this month that Dr. Seth Gregory, a pediatrician at Mayo Clinic Health System in Red Wing, has won the 2026 Gerald Gilchrist Medical Champion Award.
Reach Out and Read is a program centered around pediatric healthcare providers giving books and early guidance to young children and their families. It’s implemented at 300 clinics across the state, with more than 2,500 primary healthcare providers using the program daily.
The Gerald Gilchrist Medical Champion Award is an annual award, given to a Reach Out and Read Minnesota healthcare provider. Reach Out and Read said it awards providers that are “exceptional in promoting literacy, learning, and early relational health to their young patients and their caretakers.”
This year’s award will go to Dr. Gregory, who was first introduced to the program 13 years ago. He said the Reach Out and Read program helped him connect more deeply with his patients from the outset.
“Having a book in my hands to read to the child was really natural,” Dr. Gregory said. “[Sharing a book] lowers the tension, lowers the anxiety from the parent, anxiety from the child, anxiety from the doctor… having a book to sit down with and being able to read to the child immediately helps start that visit off on the right foot. It really helps build trust, and that just compounds in the future visits.”
Dr. Gregory also said he’s noticed the difference between now and when he first took his job with Mayo Clinic Health System Red Wing, which didn’t have the program at the time. He said, “It was harder to earn that trust, harder to get that two-year-old to talk. Reach Out and Read came to my mind as the perfect program for that.”
He worked closely with Reach Out and Read Minnesota Program Specialist Danette Kubit to get the program started at the Red Wing clinic. He noted that his colleagues immediately saw the benefits, stating that the books can be used as a tool to assess young children’s development.
Reach Out and Read said with the help of Dr. Gregory’s leadership, the program has now thrived at Mayo Clinic Health System Red Wing, distributing nearly 1,800 books in the last year.
The program stated that, in honor of Dr. Gregory’s award, Mayo Clinic Health System Red Wing will be receiving 250 books to be used in the program.
Find stories like this and more, in our apps.
Copyright 2026 KTTC. All rights reserved.