Smiles are for Free
Smiles are for Free is our community-focused project offering outreach in our Chicago communities.
The story behind the name…. Sofia regularly attended her big brothers’ basketball games at St. Helen School in Chicago and loved to help at the concession stand. During one game, on the concession stand’s whiteboard menu, she added “Smiles are for free!” We are frequently reminded of Sofia’s joyful spirit and her belief that just a smile can do so much. It is with that spirit that we offer these outreach events.
Remembrance Events
Honoring those we have lost is empowering and creates a space for healing. We gather as a community to both support one another and honor our loved ones at Sofia’s Garden in Haas Park. This ceremony is family-friendly and children are encouraged to attend. The ways in which we remember, and honor are so deeply important to our own healing.
In this ceremony, we gather as a community to honor those who have died. This community-based support helps create a space for healing and empowers us to share our grief because truly we can help one another carry its weight.
In 2019, we wrote our loved one’s names and messages on strips of cloth and placed them high in the garden tree’s branches where they remain visible today.
In 2018, after a ritual of walking around the garden’s small, beautiful path, attendees were invited to share names and stories of their loved ones as chose. We wrote messages on river rocks and buried them in the garden where they remain today.
Back to School Drives
In 2019 we served over 50 kiddos and families in our first back-to-school drive at Haas Park. Each child received their choice of backpack to fill with school supplies. Our friends at Hairitics Dye for your Beliefs were on hand to offer back-to-school haircuts, and Wendy’s served us ice cream.
The Pandemic derailed our 2020 drive a bit, so we gave backpacks directly to a local school.
In 2021, we partnered with Westown Feeds and gave over 150 backpacks and school supplies along with free food, an ice cream truck, and live music.
Sofia Khan Garden
Sofia’s Garden is located on the southwest corner of Chicago’s Haas Park in the Logan Square neighborhood. It was envisioned and created by Joe Henry, Haas Park longtime supervisor, and Haas Park Advisory Council leaders including Bridget Montgomery and Tony Porfirio.
Journalist Heidi Stevens wrote about the Garden in 2018 soon after the dedication ceremony. She writes, the Garden, “bears the name of a girl who used to play there, back when there was no soccer field. Back when a baseball diamond took up most of the play space and home plate sat in that same southwest corner, the one where purple coneflowers and blue lupine plants now grow.”
While the Garden is named for Sofia and originally created in her remembrance, we very much want this space to be for the Community! Truly, there is no person unimpacted by loss, and when we can learn about Grief, we learn to make space for it… and for healing.
