SANTIAGO, Chile — Wearing a bright red jacket and a huge smile, Sandra Corrales Román moved quickly around the Centro Sonrisas de Héroes (Smiles of Heroes Center) from child to child and their parents — giving a hug here, a kiss there, and encouragement and cheer when needed.
On Saturday, June 13, she welcomed Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to the center, which is in a bright red building and filled with colorful, cheerful walls and decorations fitting for children.
“It was touching to see the love that was extended to each of the children there,” Elder Stevenson said. He was in Chile on a ministry assignment and accompanied by his wife, Sister Lesa Stevenson, and Elder Joaquin E. Costa, General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s South America South Area.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently donated two new vans to the foundation to help transport children to and from the center in Santiago. The Church has also donated wheelchairs, dental equipment, a lift for the therapeutic pool and other supplies in the past — and was part of the opening of the Smiles of Heroes Center in November 2024, as previously reported in the Church News.
Corrales — a former Chilean national track and field athlete and archer — is dedicated to fulfilling a dream she had of a young boy who had just had surgery. Later she met that same boy when visiting a hospital with other athletes. She gave him one of her medals, and he said, “Today I am a champion.”
Because of that experience, Corrales created Deportistas por un Sueño, or “Athletes for a Dream.” Her foundation’s mission is to provide support to hundreds of children affected by complex and terminal illnesses.
Her slogan is “Chronic and terminally ill children also have the right to love, respect and dignity.”
During Elder Stevenson’s visit, Corrales introduced Elder Stevenson to the children one by one and showed him the impacts of the Church’s support.
During their conversation, Elder Stevenson said Corrales’ work reminded him of the words of Jesus Christ: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40).
“We view you as the hands of the Lord, Jesus Christ, Himself,” Elder Stevenson said. “The Lord will bless you because of it.”
Camila Tapia, whose daughter Esperanza painted a picture of the children to show Elder Stevenson, said the center is where she found family and support. She said the new vans will help her and others who live far away have better access to the center.
“I don’t have the words to thank you for the donations,” she said.
Elder Wade Kartchner and Sister Vicky Kartchner are Church humanitarian missionaries who worked on this latest project with the center. As they meet with different organizations in Chile, they said, they see the hand of the Lord navigating their path.
Said Elder Kartchner: “If He were here today, He would have been here with Sandra, and he would have been hugging and kissing and laughing and joking with those children. Just as she was.”
Added Sister Kartchner, “These would be the first children He would go to.”
Corrales said she wants to give all of the children dignity and a good life for as long as they have on earth.
“If I wasn’t here, these children would be invisible,” she said.
For her, besides the Church’s donations, what matters is that the children were seen. “To see such care and love, that was what was so special.”
