With its $6,000 donation presented earlier this month, Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary pledged to sponsor the August clinic at the Thousand Smiles Foundation in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico on an ongoing basis. The club has been involved with the charity for the past five years, but members recently decided the club needed to become more proactive with its commitment.
Thousand Smiles Foundation provides free medical and dental care for poor children in Baja who would otherwise go without treatment. This includes free facial reconstruction, dental and orthodontic care, audio/speech assistance, as well as care for the nose, ear and throat problems. All the surgeons, dentists, nurses and lay volunteers work for free several times per year. Over 100 volunteers travel to Ensenada to care for youths with cleft lips, cleft palates and other deformities on a regular basis.
The photo above shows Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotarians Mark Berdan (left), Bret Geernaert (center) and Trudy Armstong (right) with Drs. Benito and Lee, who volunteered their dentistry skills for the Thousand Smiles Foundation Clinic in August.