Operation Smile: Helping kids smile across the globe
Two hundred and forty dollars can go a long way. A car payment, a few textbooks, a new iPod or even a plane ticket. But what about changing a life? For only $240, Operation Smile is able to provide life-changing surgery for a child born with a facial deformity, and students at USU are helping raise money for the cause.
Nicki Marshall, junior in speech and language pathology with a pre-med emphasis, is the spring semester president-elect of USU’s Operation Smile chapter.
“We are an organization that helps raise money for kids in Third World countries who have cleft lip and palate,” she said. “Every $240 that we raise pays for an entire surgery.”
The USU Operation Smile chapter is one of more than 500 chapters and clubs across the nation, all spearheaded by students. Since the organization was founded in 1982, more than 120,000 children and young adults with cleft lips, palates and other facial deformities have been treated and educated by thousands of student and medical volunteers. Brooke Foster, freshman in speech and language pathology and student awareness officer of the USU chapter, said Operation Smile is unique because the surgeries are funded by students.
“All the funding comes from students,” she said. “Operation Smile wouldn’t be able to function without students.”
Foster said the surgeries do have the potential to change a patient’s life. She said having a cleft lip or palate makes it very difficult for an individual to eat and speak, and by receiving the surgery they are able live more normal lives.
Marshall, who has been involved with Operation Smile for two years, said the USU chapter officially has about 450 members with about 30 students who actively participate in planning and executing the activities. She said the group meets once a month to plan activities and to keep members informed on what is going on.
So far this year, Marshall said Operation Smile has hosted a movie night, set up booths in the TSC to raise awareness and increase membership, helped at the Service Fair and plan to help with Christmas Tree Lane. All the money raised from the activities go toward cleft lip and palate surgeries across the world.
Last year the club also sponsored a concert with local bands and raised about $600, winning the Operation Smile Campus Organization of the Year Award.
Because of this event’s success, Marshall said plans are underway for another benefit concert this spring, something she hopes becomes a tradition.
Besides being largely funded by students, Foster said Operation Smile also relies on student volunteers to travel with them to Third World countries to help at screenings and in hospitals, but also to educate patients and their families about hygiene and nutrition. In March 2008, Foster said she had the opportunity to volunteer at a hospital in Bolivia for two weeks with Operation Smile.
Foster said having the opportunity to participate in an Operation Smile mission was not an easy process. She said before a student applies, they must attend an annual international leadership conference that have been held anywhere from California to Ireland in years past.
“The year I wanted to go to the conference,” she said. “It was in Ogden, so I lucked out.”
After attending the leadership conference, Foster said students must apply and attend mission training in Virginia, where they learn about their responsibilities as volunteers. After completion of these requirements, Foster said students have the opportunity to apply to complete an Operation Smile mission almost anywhere in the world. After applying her third time, Foster said she was finally accepted into the program and was assigned to volunteer in Bolivia.
Upon arriving in Bolivia, Foster said she and other student volunteers worked from about 6:30 in the morning until 9 at night.
“Our (the student volunteer’s) responsibility was to educate. We gave four different presentations that we taught the whole time I was there … burn care and prevention, oral rehydration therapy, nutrition and dental hygiene,” Foster said. “We taught kids waiting for the screenings, went to orphanages and taught random patients throughout the hospital, any place we could find an audience.”
Foster said she had a small carry-on bag with her personal belongings, but her suitcase was filled with donations from home.
“I wanted to fill my whole suitcase with donations. I brought 1,600 toothbrushes donated from dentists and gave them away,” Foster said. “We also brought toys and notebooks for parents. Kids were thrilled just to get a bouncy ball. It definitely makes you grateful for the things you have.”
To become involved with the USU chapter of Operation Smile, contact Marshall at nicki.marshall@gmail.com.
–karlie.brand@aggiemail.usu.edu