Dear Friend,

Thank you for celebrating a season of GROWTH with KinderSmile Foundation!

Our last Annual Report was titled Sowing Seeds in Our Community, because we were pursuing partnerships across New Jersey in order to increase access to oral health education and dental care for our State's most underserved populations.

Now we are witnessing the seeds bloom into fruition! Please read on to learn about our charity's expanded efforts to eradicating dental disease across New Jersey, and as always, know that we could not do it without our partners. #ItTakesAVillage

KinderSmile Foundation's latest initiatives:

SMILE! AWARDS celebrated on October 1, 2019 honored Perinatal Health and Wellness Program mothers with keynote speaker First Lady of New Jersey Tammy Murphy. Our program is perfectly aligned with Ms. Murphy's Healthy Women, Healthy Families program, addressing the healthcare inequities in high-risk communities, that impact maternal and infant health. 

Territory Expansions

Partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Newark

Monique Whyte, RDH, dental hygienist and Program Coordinator of KinderSmile Community Oral Health Center Newark, which opened its doors in July 2019, providing a Dental Home to Boys and Girls Club of Newark members and community. We appreciate funding from Dental Trade Alliance Foundation, Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation, and MCJ Amelior Foundation.

We are excited to share that coming in 2020:

KinderSmile Community Oral Health Center Trenton!

KSCOHC Trenton fills a large gap in the community’s available resources. This new Dental Home will allow at-risk children, perinatal women, and other underserved adults to receive high-quality comprehensive oral health care in a clean, welcoming, educational setting that is easy to access via public transportation and does not turn away patients due to their inability to afford dental insurance or private fees for service. KSCOHC Trenton would not be possible without support from George H. and Estelle M. Sands Foundation, Princeton Area Community Foundation, and The Burke Foundation. Thank you!

Dr. Nicole McGrath-Barnes, Janet Brown, Tina Modi, RDH, and "D" Restaino welcomed members of the Puerto Rican Community Center of Trenton, who traveled to KSCOHC Bloomfield and received in-kind dental care.

We kicked off 2020 with a BANG!

13th Annual Give Kids a Smile Day, February 7, 2020 

On KinderSmile Foundation's 13th annual Give Kids A Smile Day we provided oral health education to 553 children in Bloomfield and Newark, and provided free preventive dental care to 126 at-risk children. We are grateful to all 66 volunteers and to the Delta Dental of New Jersey Foundation for their support!

KINDERSMILE SPECIAL SMILES PROGRAM

KinderSmile Special Smiles portion of KSOHP,  brings oral health education and preventive dental care to schools serving children with developmental disabilities. We are thankful for funding from The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, The New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities, and the Mars Wrigley Foundation.

 PARTNERSHIP WITH GRACE PANTRY IN SUMMIT, NJ 

KinderSmile Board Member and hygienist Dorrie Gagnon, RDH provides oral health education and preventive care to uninsured children. We thank the Summit Area Public Foundation for supporting this initiative.

KINDERSMILE FOUNDATION CONGRATULATES OUR COMMUNITY SERVICE LEARNING PROGRAM VETERANS' ACCEPTANCES TO DENTAL SCHOOLS: 

Dana Patel- Columbia University College of Dental Medicine

Stephanie Smith- Tufts University School of Dental Medicine

Jim Skaff- The College of Dental Medicine at NSU

Ken Leong- University of MD School of Dentistry

Monique Duru- ECU School of Dental Medicine

Irene Spates- UMD Pediatric Dentistry after graduating from Rutgers School of Dental Medicine

Diana Adebambo- NYU College of Dentistry

PARTNERSHIPS WITH MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY, NJCU, BLOOMFIELD COLLEGE, BLOUSTEIN SCHOOL INTERNSHIPS AND OTHERS, ALLOW US TO CONTINUE TO MENTOR THE YOUNG DENTISTS OF THE FUTURE! 

Please visit www.kindersmile.org to sign up to volunteer

As always, we truly appreciate our donors, grantors, volunteers, and readers who are all part of the KinderSmile Foundation "village." Thank you for helping us achieve our mission to provide access to oral health care and ensure that every child has access to a dentist! Let's all have a healthy spring!

Blessings,

Nicole McGrath-Barnes, DDS, FACD

President & CEO

KinderSmile Foundation