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2025 Sandra Allen Memorial
Education Award Winners
2025 Sandra Allen Memorial Education Award Winners
Sandra Allen served on the Board of Directors for Help A Child Smile for over 20 years. For 10 years, she was the Chair and played a key role in developing the program and supports that Help A Child Smile provides. In 2014, Sandra passed away.
Help A Child Smile’s Board of Directors along with CanJam for Cancer have created these awards in Sandra’s memory.
Olivia Honsinger
I am extremely grateful to be a Sandra Allen Memorial Scholarship recipient. This award will help me with the financial burden of post secondary education so I am incredibly grateful that Help A Child Smile has invested in my future. Since my brother was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of 5, this organization has been assisting my family in more ways than one. I cannot express my gratitude enough. Thank you, Help A Child Smile for always supporting my family and I when we needed.
Korra Russo
At 16 years old, Kora was diagnosed with cancer. This experience transformed her life in profound ways. Though it wasn’t only the illness that shaped her; it was the people she met along the way, as well as those who she lost. Children enduring unimaginable challenges taught her what bravery, joy, and hope look like in their purest forms. Their strength left a lasting impact on her, becoming the foundation for the path she walks today. Through the weight of trauma, jumping over unforeseen obstacles such as a loss of a friend and the impact of mental health, Kora discovered the power of resilience. Through meaningful connection, she found the strength that comes from community. Through years of reflection and the beginnings of healing, she uncovered her calling: to become a teacher who guides, empowers, and walks beside young people as they grow through life’s challenges. The Sandra Allen Memorial Award is a reflection of every helping hand that supported her journey. This recognition honors strength, as well as the countless moments, faces, and lessons that have brought her to this point. As she enters Teachers College at York University, Kora carries with her a deep sense of purpose. She hopes to create a classroom where healing, learning, and self-belief can flourish. A space where every student feels seen, valued, supported, and never alone.
Kora is attending York University to receive her BEd with OTC, for the primary and junior stream.
Ryan Smuk
I am honored and grateful to be a recipient of the Sandra Allen Memorial Award, as it will provide my family and me with financial support as I begin my journey at Queens University in Engineering. After a tough year battling cancer at the age of 17, doing 4 months of chemotherapy in my grade 12 year, I managed to overcome this obstacle and thrive in my academics, maintaining my grades and social life. This award is so impactful in my life as it shows how my hard work in school during treatment has paid off. What I thought was impossible at the time turned out to be possible because of the motivation and love from all my friends and family during this time, who supported me and kept pushing me on. Once again, I am so grateful to be given this award as I have worked so hard over the past year, and I want to thank everyone at Help a Child Smile and those helping with the award for doing such greatness in the community for those who need it most.