Smiles for Life...and Joyce

So, it isn’t every day you’re blessed with the chance to make a difference for someone you might not ever meet. And for years our dental practice just didn’t know how to find the way. We wanted to be part of a larger picture, the community.

In 1998, three of us drove down to La Jolla for our first Crown Council Annual Event. We were surrounded by forward thinking doctors and their teams, hungry for an opportunity to reach out and do good. A colleague came forward with an idea. Why not provide teeth whitening at a reduced fee and donate all of the proceeds to a charitable cause?

Our partner, by way of a Major League Baseball fantasy camp and the colleague with a vision, was Garth Brooks. Our national cause was St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Smiles for Life was born.

Today, half of the proceeds are targeted for a national organization benefitting children in health and educational need. And the other 50% of funds go to a local cause of our choice. For Temple City Dental Care, those causes have included organizations like Haven House of Pasadena, the Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA, and A Better LA. For the last several years, we’ve partnered with Pasadena’s Foundation for Living Beauty, an organization supporting women (as well as their families.) during their journey with cancer.

This year, Treatment Coordinator Denise Williams-Jones led our super-successful campaign. We set goals. We celebrated and shared teeth whitening milestones reached along the way (from March 1-June30.) And there were raffles and prizes along the way (and some Hip Hop too.)

Joyce was the winner of the raffle signaling the final leg of Smiles for Life, 2021. And how often does a dental practice take the time to shed a tear over how blessed we are to serve the amazing patients we see as family?

We’ve enjoyed the opportunity to serve Joyce, her husband Gordon, and mom Julie for some 17-years. And, no surprise, Joyce believes in paying her good fortune forward. Joyce won a gift card for $300…and donated it to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank “Fighting Hunger. Giving Hope.”

Even before Covid-19, 2-million people faced food insecurity in Los Angeles County, including 570,000 children. In 2020, the Food Bank distributed 174 million pounds of food, the equivalent of 143 million meals. You can connect with the Food Bank at 323/234-3030 or visit the website at LAFoodBank.org.

Making a difference for others and doing good during Smiles for Life has helped us become a more effective, cohesive, empathetic team. But enjoying relationships with patients like Joyce and her family have made us better people. When we see Joyce’s name on our schedule or engage her at an office event or see her when we’re out and about, there’s always some serious smiling happening. Smiling is definitely contagious; so why not brighten a smile, do good, have something awesome to smile about?