Appreciate Your Smile
Perhaps this isn’t something everyone does, but years ago, I was in a debutante ball. The Philippine Medical Society of Jacksonville puts on a debutante ball every year to introduce all the vibrant, smart, and beautiful Pinays of Jacksonville (I didn’t go overboard on those adjectives, did I?). I wore a fancy white dress, learned a fancy ballroom dance, walked around a fancy room and ate a fancy dinner.
Would you like to try some fancy sauce?
And the biggest, most-often given instruction was one word: “Smile!” Show off those pearly whites, beam at the camera, and around the fancy room. Smile, smile, smile.
Sounds simple enough.
I recently talked to one of the women in the Philippine Medical Society and learned about a project of theirs that is so touching I had to share it with everyone. I knew I was a debutante with some good peoples…
In the summer of 2007, the Philippine Medical Society (East Coast Florida chapter) sent a volunteer group of forty-plus doctors and personnel on a Medical Mission to offer medical assistance to people living in rural areas of the Philippines. This is an entirely volunteer mission. These doctors and personnel pay for their entire trip out of their own pockets. Among the 2,613 patients they treated in those four days—including ninety-six surgeries concerning hernias, thyroid issues, and cleft conditions, et al—the Philippine Medical Society met Angelito and Genrev.
This is Angelito:
As you can see, Angelito was born with a severe cleft condition. Genrev has a tumor between his eyes against his forehead. These two boys were in such a serious condition that the facilities in their rural home areas were insufficient to accommodate their needs. It took a year and a half of communications with the US Embassy in Manila to get Angelito and Genrev Visas to come to the US, and they are finally here, living with host families, and currently undergoing surgeries, with free facility use at the Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville and volunteer doctors from the Philippine Medical Society performing the surgeries.
First Coast News in Jacksonville did a piece on Angelito, which you can watch here:
The First Coast News Team did a follow up after the surgery also:
Lastly, here is a three part video series about the Philippine Medical Mission, which documents the whole mission: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
The next Philippine Medical mission takes place at the end of this month. If anyone is interested in donating to them, shoot me an email at nolimitdevoe at gmail dot com, and I’ll put you in touch with the appropriate people.
Now, smile!
Philippine Medical Society Debutante Ball, 1994. Me. Smiling.
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Incredible post, Riley! Several of the Tongginator’s “China cousins” are CL/CP affected. And one of her friends born locally in Maryland as well. I feel so blessed that we in the US have the ability to provide surgeries for children born with this condition. In China, many children are abandoned by their families, not because they are unwanted children, but because the families cannot afford the surgeries necessary. Many CL/CP affected infants in China are found abandoned at several months old, malnourished, because the families didn’t have the special bottles necessary to appropriately feed them. The families abandoned these infants simply so that the children would survive. It is so very sad. (Can you tell I am passionate about this issue? And thanks again.)
Ok, you do realize you have to post a picture of you as a debutante, right? SMILING!
This is a great cause. In Mauritania we would see so many kids and adults with major issues (cleft palette, club feet, etc) that would have been fixed at birth in the US. Thanks for letting us know about it.
Thanks for a great post on an important issue.
And I agree: We need a pic of you now.
Great write up. We are so blessed to be in this country of ours and to be able to help those people who are less fortunate.
I want to see your Debutante’s picture.
[...] is a real testament to my ability to laugh at myself that I am giving in to your requests on yesterday’s post for a couple of my debutante ball [...]
Debutante photos as requested. See how nice I am?