SMILES FOR CENTRAL AMERICA – 2012
SMILES FOR CENTRAL AMERICA
Twice each year, “Smiles for Central America” sponsors humanitarian service expeditions to Central America for the purpose of providing medical and dental services for young LDS men and women to help them prepare to serve full-time LDS missions. The group rotates through the countries of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama.
Dentists, oral surgeons, physicians, endodontists, prosthodontists, and dental hygienists are needed along with podiatrists, nurses, phlebotomists, lab technicians, dental assistants, barbers, pre-dental students, and a variety of others to staff the large volunteer team of approximately 100 people for every trip.
Local priesthood leaders bring in groups of young men and women who are planning to begin service as LDS missionaries within the next year. During the visit, each receives all the medical evaluation and dental treatment necessary to complete the missionary application. Priesthood leaders then keep completed applications until the future missionary reaches the age when interviews can be completed and the applications submitted to Church headquarters.
Another important aspect of “Smiles for Central America” is to provide hope, love, and support for the people of Central America, and expeditions include a variety of community service projects for orphanages, children’s cancer hospitals, maternity hospitals, a dental school, and families in need.
To learn more about this opportunity and to apply for participation in an upcoming service trip, please see the website www.smilesforcentralamerica.com. Also, please exam the information below about our next service trip.
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Dear Friends of Central America,
We have just completed our 19th dental/medical brigada to Central America, “Smiles for Panama 2011”, our 13th brigada focused on serving future missionaries. It was a tremendous success with a total of 430 patients treated, which included 356 future missionaries. To date, our volunteers have now served over 4,350 future missionaries.
We want to thank the several hundred volunteers from 7 countries–including the US, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama–who contributed services and support, including well over 10,000 hours of service to bring about this wonderful miracle. Many lives will be changed and blessed because of your selfless sacrifices.
Announcing “Smiles for Guatemala City 2012”
We are pleased to announce our next brigada, “Smiles for Guatemala City 2012”!
Dates: Departing Thursday April 26th and returning Sunday May 6th 2012.
This brigada will conclude with (as many have requested) three nights on the beautiful island of Roatan at the fabulous Infinity Bay Resort. www.infinitybay.com
We anticipate this to be one of our largest brigadas and we will need approximately 110 volunteers. For all the details, please visit our website and apply for the trip today.
http://www.smilesforcentralamerica.com/upcoming-expeditions-for-smiles.html
Thanks for all the good you do,
David Sheets
