by Kiersten Cannizzaro
During the spring of 2020, in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, professional photographer Kiersten Cannizzaro offered free group photos via her photography Facebook page and the Mount Prospect Neighbors page. The response was amazing. About 80 families and even a number of businesses in Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights, Park Ridge, Chicago, Palatine, Elk Grove, Wheeling, Lake In The Hills, Elgin and Algonquin took her up on her offer!
“I had seen a clip on the news about other photographers doing porch portraits and I thought it was a great idea,” Cannizzaro explained. “I had seen how much restaurants in our area were struggling and thought I could do some shoots and ask people in return to order from local restaurants to help boost business. I thought this would be the perfect scenario to get me out of my four walls and interact with people at a safe distance and make people smile again (which makes my heart smile) while giving back to the local restaurant businesses that were needing business now more than ever.”
“And shortly after that, I learned Station 34 was donating meals to first responders so I started asking for donations and sending the money to Station 34 where Joe, the owner, was making and delivering meals to police stations, fire stations, hospitals, nursing homes, public works etc.”
“I started my career at Leo Burnett Advertising and there I was trained to always be looking for ways to promote a product or business, but this was really something different,” Cannizzaro said. “The pandemic brought out a lot of good in people. It made so many of us want to do something good; to make a difference; or to help in some way.”
“I’m not a doctor or in healthcare, so what good could I do?” she continued. “I can make people smile! So that is exactly what I did. I made people smile and then helped feed those that are helping take care of those who are sick. It felt good to do something nice for people and to make people feel better at a time when we all really weren’t feeling so great. Maybe I wasn’t saving lives, but I was saving a few smiles and that was just as good for me.”
Looking back on that time, Cannizzaro said that she has many wonderful memories of her photo shoots. There were the graduates who didn’t get the big commencement pomp and circumstance; the first wedding anniversary when they shared their wedding cake; the baby announcements; and the First Communions with girls in their beautiful white dresses with gloves and boys in their suits, all growing up with such dignity and grace in these unprecedented times. “There were also lots of families with their proud service members, police officers, firemen, nurses, doctors, teachers, as well as the proud parents sending their sons and daughters off to the Army and Navy or off to college, all with tears streaming down their faces and beaming with pride.”
“There were so many happy faces and goofy families who made the spring of 2020 a better spring overall,” she added.
