Name: Chris Horan, co-founder of Red Sneakers for Food Allergy Awareness Peoria chapter.

When did you start your nonprofit?: Our family along with the Spangler family co-launched Red Sneakers for Food Allergy Awareness, Peoria chapter in March 2024.

Where did the idea come from?: The idea was hatched out of necessity and a desire to help other families with children living with severe allergies. For us, we realized that the need for information was real when our son Brody had an allergic reaction when he was 11 months old. It was a scary experience for us. After talking with our pediatrician, finding an allergist and doing allergy testing, we’ve learned Brody is allergic to peanuts. As a result, we take epinephrine around wherever Brody goes.

But managing severe allergies is so much more – it impacts the entire family. And because there was so little information about food allergies, and severe allergies in general in our area, we thought it was critical for other families to know where they could find this life-saving information.

We started with Allergy Awareness for Children Everywhere, which is a FARE-recognized food allergy support group. FARE stands for Food Allergy Research & Education. This led us to collaborate with and launch Red Sneakers for Oakley, which centered in Peoria Heights, Illinois. From there, we launched the first Red Sneakers Peoria Chapter in the country.

What is the nature of your organization?: Our mission is to aid and empower the food allergy community through education, support, research and advocacy. We aim to provide support so that parents and children with allergies are educated regarding their allergy symptoms and how they should respond accordingly to severe, life-threatening reactions.

At Red Sneakers for Food Allergy Awareness, Peoria, some of our initiatives include food allergy and CPR/first-aid training for schools, restaurants, first responders, businesses and communities; donating allergy-friendly foods and epinephrine, working to advance food allergy legislation, improve access to therapies, and implement food allergy menus.

Further, we are working toward having more allergy safe zones at venues, allergy camps, as well as allergy safe signs at local parks and playgrounds. Ultimately, we want to connect fragmented food allergy nonprofits across the country and ensure those living with allergies feel as safe and included as possible.

Why was it important to start this chapter in Peoria?: We started Red Sneakers to transform our local community into an allergy friendly environment. Peoria is already a hub for so much philanthropy that we knew we could make an immediate impact locally and then expand to the state and national levels.

What is unique about your organization?: With nearly 40 million Americans with severe allergies, which could lead to visits to hospital emergency rooms, we feel that as co-founders with children affected by severe food allergies, we have a unique story to tell and important, potentially life-saving information to share — and it’s available right here in Peoria.

Anything interesting to share/promote about your organization?: We constantly update our website with news and events related to severe allergies. An important development is the first needle-free FDA-approved epinephrine treatment option called neffy. It’s an epinephrine nasal spray that can be used by adults and children over age 4 (who weigh 33 pounds or more), does not require refrigeration and is easy to carry and administer. For more information, please visit neffy.com.

For more information about Red Sneakers for Food Allergy Awareness, go to redsneakers.org/peoria.

What are your plans for the future?: We have coming up on Oct. 11, the Red Sneakers for Food Allergy Awareness Walk/Run, which allows us to educate, spread awareness, and come together as an allergy community. We anticipate 300 people at this event. To raise awareness of our organization and the walk/run, we will participate in the Morton Pumpkin Festival Parade in September and also host a booth at their Nonprofit Spotlight area. This helps us to reach approximately 70,000 participants each year.