Cooper City teen organizes fundraiser for Operation Smile
On Saturday, December 12, 2009, students from Cooper City High School were joined by over 500 people from throughout the tri-county area, raising close to $12,000 during Miles 4 Smiles, a walk-a-thon for Operation Smile, a worldwide medical with the mission of providing free surgeries for children from poor countries who have correctable facial deformities including cleft palate, cleft lip, burns, and facial tumors.
Led by CCHS Senior Jaime Sloane, students from Key Club, National Honor Society, DECA and Student Government joined
Jaime Sloane, Cooper City High senior presents a check to Marge Ryan, Operation Smile representative
together to organize this 2 mile fun walk in order to raise money as well as awareness for Operation Smile.
“Just imagine if one of us had a surgically correctable facial deformity that we couldn’t do anything about because of lack of health insurance or lack of money. That would be so tragic. These children from undeveloped countries face a life of being teased about something that is easy to fix, but because of economics, are instead, destined to a life without smiles,” said Sloane.
This is the second walk organized by Sloane through her involvement in Key Club; the first one having taken place this past April, during the Annual Florida District Key Club convention in Orlando. Over 400 Key Clubbers participated in that walk raising over $7,000 for Operation Smile and providing life changing surgeries for 30 children! Each surgery costs approximately $240 since almost all of the costs of the surgeries as well as the medical equipment are donated by medical personnel along volunteering their time and expertise.
The goal of this second Miles 4 Smiles was to raise $10,000 and the event exceeded that amount by almost $2,000! Many local companies participated in the effort Comcast South Florida, The Florida Panthers Bova Ice Dancers, Billy the Marlin, Edy’s Ice Cream, AdGraphics, NuPress, Infinity Sound Productions, LaCroix Water, Kiwanis International, Pretzel Crisps, and Community Blood Centers.
“When people think their small gestures cannot make a difference, I hope they think of Miles 4 Smiles and realize they were instrumental in truly transforming the lives of these children through their participation. Our donations are providing surgeries to almost 50 children! Now, that’s what I call “Changing Lives One Smile at a Time”, Sloane said.
Founded in 1982, Operation Smile, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, is a worldwide children’s medical whose network of global volunteers are dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children and young adults. Since its founding, Operation Smile volunteers have treated more than 130,000 children born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities and the organization has a presence in 51 countries. In addition to contributing free medical treatment, Operation Smile trains local medical professionals in its partner countries and leaves behind crucial equipment to lay the groundwork for long-term self-sufficiency.
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Posted by Andrea Freygang on Dec 30 2009. Filed under Broward County, Local news, Non-profit organizations, cooper city. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
