Amid the bustle of pedestrians downtown on Ohio Street Friday afternoon, one chirpy phrase rang out.
“Free popsicle?” Jasmine Trevino, 26, asked people trudging through Friday’s stifling humidity.
That humidity — matched by an equally crippling heat — is expected to continue through Saturday.
Yet, Trevino, cheeks flush, managed a cheeriness that somehow endured the full hour she stood outside the ACME Hotel, where she works. Management, she said, decided it would be a “nice thing” to offer free popsicles in Friday’s stifling heat. Employees handed them out in one-hour shifts.
“I want to make people feel happy,” said Trevino, next to a colorful sign telling passersby to “Be cool.”
But this is Chicago — a city that hardly slows down for anything, even record-hot temperatures — so some people ignored or refused Trevino’s sugary offer — at first.
The funniest part, Trevino said, were the “people who said they didn’t want a popsicle, but when they got closer, wanted it.”
She offered popsicle after popsicle to everyone. A police officer. A family of five.
“You’re an angel,” one man said, his brisk pace interrupted for just a moment to grab the free treat.
Trevino brought 108 popsicles for her shift — but needed 109. A couple walked by just as she was down to her final popsicle.
“You can share it,” Trevino said.
