Smile for a Lifetime Partners With National Children's Oral Health Foundation: America's ToothFairy To Encourage "Pay It Forward" Program
Colorado Springs, CO (PRWEB) October 21, 2014 -- The Smile for a Lifetime Foundation (S4L), an international nonprofit organization that provides orthodontic care and free braces to under-served children with financial challenges and special orthodontic needs, announced today that it has partnered with the National Children's Oral Health Foundation (NCOHF):America's ToothFairy®.
Smile for a Lifetime Chapters will join over 400 high schools, 600 Boys & Girls Clubs and other youth organizations as S4L orthodontic scholars participate in NCOHF's My Smile Matters: A Youth Movement mentoring program empowering young people to give back to their communities through oral health education.
My Smile Matters participants “serve as mentors and share their new found oral health knowledge through interactive oral health lessons with younger children in their communities”. S4L scholars will be able to use NCOHF Community Education Kits for their “pay it forward” projects. The kits provide turnkey materials for youth interested in becoming community oral health educators and leaders.
NCOHF will also provide referrals from their Tomorrow’s SMILES®* client base to S4L chapters for pro-bono orthodontic services joining other Smile for a Lifetime national referral partners including Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), One Simple Wish and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA). *Tomorrow’s SMILES youth receive pro-bono dental care through NCOHF.
Smile for a Lifetime Board President Dr. Ronald Redmond shares, “Finances should never stop a child from achieving the dream of a straight smile and S4L is committed to touching the lives of our youth by awarding thousands of orthodontic scholarships to deserving kids. Given our shared goal of fostering self-confidence, good oral health and “pay it forward” programs among our nation’s youth, we believe our partnership with National Children’s Oral Health Foundation is the perfect union for providing our nation’s young people with a brighter future.”
“NCOHF is thrilled to partner with S4L to enhance the ‘pay it forward’ educational resources available to S4L Chapters and orthodontic scholars,” says Fern Ingber, NCOHF President and CEO. “We look forward to supporting scholars as they work hard to increase oral health literacy in their communities.”
Pediatric dental disease is the #1 chronic childhood illness in America, impacting millions of children and their ability to eat, sleep, play, and learn. In response to this health crisis, NCOHF: America’s ToothFairy was founded in 2006 as a collaborative effort of clinicians, academicians, corporate leaders, and community stakeholders. Dedicated to eliminating children’s preventable suffering from dental disease, NCOHF provides programs, comprehensive resources, and support to deliver community-based critical preventive, educational, and treatment services to the most vulnerable children. For more information about NCOHF and its programs, please visit http://www.ncohf.org.
S4L was founded in an effort to link children and teens of low-income families with pro-bono orthodontic scholarships. S4L receives support from Ormco Corporation, which donates its best-in-class orthodontic appliances to the program throughout the U.S. and Canada. Since its inception, the foundation has treated more than 3000 children ages 11-18 years of age who could not afford braces and has grown to an international nonprofit organization that currently serves more than 164 chapters in 43 states and Canada. To date over 17 million dollars in services has been donated. To nominate children for the program or find a chapter near you, please visit http://www.s4l.org and click on “Locate an Office Near You”.
For more information on S4L’s partnership with NCOHF and further details on the orthodontic scholarship application process, please contact the national office at info(at)s4l(dot)org.
About Smile for a Lifetime Foundation
The mission of S4L is to create self-confidence, inspire hope and change the lives of children in their communities in a dramatic way. The gift of a smile can do all this for a deserving, under-served individual who, in turn, can use this gift to better themselves and their community. During treatment, many S4L local chapters also encourage scholarship recipients to participate in community service through a “pay it forward” program inspiring young people to participate in lifelong giving.
Michelle Von Fange, Smile For A Lifetime, http://www.s4l.org, +1 (719)535-2777, [email protected]
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