Weâ€™re â€˜Sending Hopeâ€™ — and We Need Your Help

Students like you worldwide are working together to ensure that potential patients are healthy enough for surgery once medical missions resume in their countries.

Join in our Sending Hope campaign and help us deliver care packages — filled with essential health-care items and nutritional food — to families in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Panama. These packages will help their family members born with cleft conditions stay well and nourished. As it can cost as little as $70 to feed a family for a week, we are hoping to help more than 1,600 families through this campaign.

How can you get involved?
• Reach out to your Student Programs associate. Theyâ€™ll tell you which country your region is collaborating with and how to get started.
• Check out this â€œSending Hopeâ€ toolbox to use campaign materials.

How can family and supporters help?
• Consider asking them to support the campaign with a donation.
• See if they might like to send items to families via our Amazon Wishlist.

Screen team: Students from Italy and Nicaragua hopped on a Zoom call to chat about the Sending Hope campaign, share ideas and devise their plan for helping families.

Making dough: Ten-year-old Livia took part in a virtual baking class during the holidays and used her new skills for good. She sold cookies as a Sending Hope fundraiser and raised enough money to cover a weekâ€™s worth of meals for a potential patient and his family.

All smiles: Middle schooler and longtime volunteer Paige Rooney of Virginia Beach rallied 100 toothbrushes to be included in our Sending Hope deliveries.

STUDPRO RECAP

You've Stepped Up...

If youâ€™re one of the 150-ish undergrads from 20-plus countries who joined us for our virtual Step Up Symposium this month, we have two words for you: Thank you. While you all came from different cultures and courses of study, you came together with a singular goal in mind: To think of ways you can help more patients despite the COVID-19 pandemic. And we just canâ€™t thank you enough.

â€¦ And Youâ€™re Making Smiles Possible

Weâ€™re so proud to share that youâ€™ve helped us rally more than $50,000 so far as part of our Smile Fund campaign! To celebrate, we want to introduce you to the club at the Academy of the Holy Cross in Maryland and share their Smile Fund success story.

They might be a new club, but our friends at the Academy of the Holy Cross have already made a big impact. By encouraging members to share their Smile Fund link to family and friends, they exceeded their goal and raised more than $1,000! But their kindness doesnâ€™t stop there: Theyâ€™ve also been busy creating hospital gowns and friendship bracelets for our patients.

All Smiles with Dr. Dane and Isabella

Student Programs wants to give a special shoutout to Dr. Dane Hoang and her daughter Isabella, as well as their friends and family within the Kids 4 Smiles community. Not only is Dr. Dane a prolific medical volunteer for Operation Smile — she was even featured on Layâ€™s bags of chips during the #smilewithlays campaign! — but the pediatric dentist and Stud Pro supporter has been a driver of our Serving Smiles effort.

During the 2020 holiday season alone, Dr. Dane, Isabella and their squad of do-gooders provided almost 2,000 meals to hospitals in New York, Florida, Louisiana, Texas and California.

What makes Dr. Dane and Isabellaâ€™s efforts even more special is how theyâ€™ve rallied student volunteers to help fuel health care workers across the United States. For example, over the holidays, they teamed up with our club at Trinity Preparatory School in Orlando, Florida. Together with club co-presidents Lilly and Elaine, they (safely) delivered 50 meals — donated by restaurant Buca Di Beppo — to hospital staff at AdventHealth Winter Park!

STUD PRO PLANS & PROJECTS

LEA: In just a couple weeks, weâ€™ll virtually gather students from across Latin America for our annual LatinoamÃ©rica en AcciÃ³n conference! Just like our International Student Leadership Conference but held in Spanish, high school and university volunteers will boost their leadership skills while learning about Operation Smile and global health.

Spread the Love + Art With Heart: Bring the Operation Smile spirit of service to your hometown through our Spread the Love campaign! And to kick it off, consider submitting a piece of artwork for our Art With Heart show.

Do good, look good thanks to the new Operation Smile Shop — and the Rivera trucker hat! We named it for Laurie Rivera, one of our most devoted volunteer nurses (and a major fan of trucker caps). Check out our complete line of gifts and apparel and remember that proceeds support Operation Smile programs.

ADVOCATES IN ACTION

Florida: Run by co-presidents Mia and Maddie, the club at North Broward Preparatory School made some get well-cards for our patients!

Florida: Meanwhile, in Miami, our club at Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart organized a drive-by bake sale in their neighborhood and raised more than $260! Thanks to club president Pia and her team!

Virginia: For his final project to become an Eagle Scout, Gavin Kruesi, a senior at Grassfields High School in Chesapeake, made patient blankets and care packages. Born with a cleft condition, Gavin wants to join an Operation Smile club next year in college.

New Jersey: In December, the Moorestown Friends Operation Smile club held a virtual gingerbread fundraiser where, to enter, contestants had to donate to their clubâ€™s Smile Fund. The gingerbread house above was one of the finalists. The club raised $130 to support surgeries.

New Jersey: Donovan Catholicâ€™s Operation Smile Club hosted a Virtual Yoga Night fundraiser. More than 60 participants joined in the fun!

Maryland: The University of Maryland-College Park club recently received a $5,000 grant through the Bumble Student Community Organization Fund Contest. UMDâ€™s chapter of Operation Smile is one of 10 student organizations across the country chosen for the award. As a small club, they plan to donate a portion of the grant to help with surgeries, and theyâ€™ll use the remainder to help grow the club and organize safe events to promote Operation Smile.

New Jersey: Cashola nights are such easy and effective fundraisers. Case in point: The club at Scotch Plains Fanwood High School held a fundraiser at a Panera near their school and raised nearly $100!

Michigan: The Washtenaw International and Pioneer high schools teamed up to host a virtual U-Lead conference. Medical volunteer Dr. Elaine Kennedy presented to the participants and shared stories from the field with Operation Smile. The 31 students in attendance also learned about careers in pediatrics!

A Partnership to Smile About

The official sponsor of the @osstudpro Snapshot is Stacked By Suzie!

Just like Operation Smile, Stacked By Suzie is a Virginia Beach-based family venture: Suzie and her daughter Talia create and curate their selection of affordable and on-trend jewelry. That includes Operation Smile-inspired earrings.

SUPPORT STUDENT PROGRAMS

Operation Smile Student Programs
3641 Faculty Boulevard
Virginia Beach, VA. 23453
1-888-OPSMILE

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Stacked By Suzie's financial support of Operation Smile is not influenced by the purchase of any Stacked By Suzie product and this promotion does not constitute an endorsement of any Stacked By Suzie product by Operation Smile and its affiliated brands. For more information about Operation Smile Student Programs, please visit https://studentprograms.operationsmile.org.
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