Friends of "WHY" Smiling Faces Campaign

Please take a moment to imagine the day your child is born. You are overflowing with love and excitement. Now imagine how you would feel if your newborn has a gaping hole in their lip/mouth. Imagine the challenge of feeding your infant if he/she cannot suckle. As a parent, your heart is broken and you are worried, but you are fortunate to live in a country where health care can correct this misfortune.

But what if you are not so lucky? What if … you barely have the resources to feed your family … you have no access to any medical resources … you live in a 3rd world country?

Operation Smile is a non-profit, volunteer, world-wide organization that brings Smiles to children who have been born with the facial deformities of cleft lip and/or cleft palate – making it difficult for them to drink, eat, speak or smile. These children are shunned, hidden away, feared, ridiculed, tormented or worse. Many never leave their home. Parents are desperate for a miracle that could give their child a ‘normal’, healthy life.

A ‘simple’ $240.00 operation can change a child’s life forever – Turning Tears into Smiles. Operation Smile volunteers travel the world to provide this life-changing operation to those in need. And they do so much more, developing medical and community services and support.

Friends of "WHY" – Smiling Faces Campaign

We have committed to help Operation Smile bring SMILES to as many kids as we can… $2.00 from the sale of every “Why Do I Feel This Way?” book will be donated to Operation Smile

Anyone wishing to add to our campaign may make donations at our “Friends of "WHY" – Smiling Faces Campaign” website (our Operation Smile site).

Please visit our donation site

45 SMILING FACES and counting ...

Thanks to our combined efforts, our "Friends of WHY" campaign is happy to say we have now helped 45 children turn their tears into smiles. Our first SMILE came from the very kind donation by Christine's mother to get us started. Thanks Mom!!  Since then, whenever possible, we make our donations during "matching gift challenges" at Operation Smile. At these times, generous donors offer to match any donations made. This makes our donations go twice as far, helping twice as many kids, their families and their communities!

Why are we supporting Operation Smile?

I have always been involved with kids: doing daycare, lunchtime supervision at school, an active participant on our school council, hockey team snack mom, baseball team first aid mom, neighbourhood mom, and more. I love kids (of any age) and I love to see them smiling and happy.

Wanting to ‘give back’ …

During a volunteer trip to Peru, my daughter met and became friends with someone whose family is very involved in Operation Smile. I had never heard of this organization but shortly after learning of it I noticed an Operation Smile documentary on TV. I watched, I learned and I cried. As a mom, my heart went out to these innocent children and their desperate families. Many of these children live in societies who believe these children are cursed and to be feared. Many of them never leave their home, or if they do, they wear a bag over their head for fear of harassment or worse. Many of them are simply abandoned. I wanted to help – but how?

Oh how the universe unfolds …

Months later, I told Charlene about my desire to support Operation Smile through "Why Do I Feel This Way?" book sales. To my surprise, without any discussion, she eagerly agreed stating she also had been searching for a way to support this organization since viewing the movie “SMILE”, a movie I knew nothing about. Neither of us had ever spoken about our knowledge of this organization to the other, yet we were both on the ‘same path’. The universe had presented us with ‘our way to give back’.

A relatively ‘simple fix’ can change a child’s desperation into hope, and their tears into smiles. We want to be a part of as many of those smiling faces as possible.

For more information about cleft lip/palate &/or Operation Smile:

Operation Smile Success Stories

Frequently Asked Questions about Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate