Laurie Williams knows that women like to shop and support good causes, so she lets us do both at the Soap Box Shop—a store that specializes primarily in organic and natural body care products that are good for you and for humanity, too.
Williams’ personal experience has made her passionate about helping women, children and individuals with disabilities, so the Soap Box Shop carries lines from 10 nonprofit organizations both abroad and close to home.
Everyone Can Work
“Everyone in the world can work,” Williams says—including all women and people with disabilities, so she works to make employment a reality for others.
At the shop, you can buy body oil, body butter, shower gel, soap or candles made by Enterprising Kitchen, a Chicago nonprofit that provides job training to needy women so they can be independent and support their families.
Many of the products are handmade and signed by the women who have gone through the training and gotten jobs with the company.
“[The products] aren’t just coming out of a machine, there’s a human connection,” Williams says.
The store also carries recycled rice bags from Global Girlfriend, which supports women worldwide, and friendship bracelets made out of grass by Leakey, which supports women in Kenya.
Organics for Your Body
“The things you put on your body, it’s the same as what you eat and drink, so why put something on that’s going to pollute your body?” Williams says.
She became more aware about chemicals in body care products after watching her mother and sister battle breast cancer.
“The information out there about what these chemicals do to women’s bodies, it’s overwhelming,” she says.
Other places around the world have banned many of the chemicals that are still in our body care products here, she points out. So, the Soap Box shops stocks all-natural, organic body care lines, including Jurlique, Dr. Bronner’s, LaNatura, and HollyBeth’s.
Caring for Children and Dealing with Disabilities
Williams has a son with disabilities, so the store has supported numerous organizations that provide job training to people with disabilities.
She also carries some lines that just support children, such as pewter silver necklaces from Flashes of Hope. This organization funds professional portraits of children with cancer, “so they can see themselves in a beautiful light, and their parents can have something beautiful to remember them by,” Williams explains.
You won’t find anything ordinary at the Soap Box Shop—all of the brands that Williams stocks are relatively rare. And so is her brand of wide-ranging, zealous and smart philanthropy.
Photos by Joan McCarthy
