The Dallas Share A Smile Foundation Inspires

A few years ago I remember hearing about a baby who was born with some facial deformities. Her birth mom had placed her for adoption because the wealthy family she came from “didn’t want that in our family.” A couple was ready to adopt the baby after papers were signed by the birth mom. “It’s all cosmetic, it can be fixed,” said the adoptive mom at the time.

Sadly, the baby wound up dying from other complications later. Recently I heard about an organization in Dallas, TX that needs a volunteer to help with marketing public relations – Share A Smile Foundation âÂ?¢.

Blake and Holly Stock started it in 2002 with the help of Dr. Jay Burns and staff at The Fogelson Plastic & Craniofacial Surgery Center for Children, and Children’s Medical Center of Dallas.

The Foundation provides financial support to kids requiring plastic surgery and/or medical treatments to repair or remove vascular anomalies but whose families are not able to pay for the service. These problems are a familiar subject for The Stocks because one of their daughters was diagnosed with a nasal tip hemangioma as an infant.

The couple and their daughter’s twin sister became close to Burns and his staff during their daughter’s treatment. They said they felt fortunate to have had the chance and the money to have Channing, their daughter treated successfully by Burns but realize not everyone has the same option.

You can make a tax-deductible donation to the Foundation online at shareasmilefoundation.org. “You can make a difference in a child’s life not only in the way others see them, but in how they will see themselves for years to come,” states the site.

“Channing was not really experiencing anything (before surgery) other than out in public people would come up sometimes and ask, ‘What is that on your?'” Holly said. “As a parent that’s hard to deal with when a little stain started to grow larger and culminated to be almost the size of a golf ball on the nose.”

As an infant Channing had a red-colored speck on the tip of her nose. Channing underwent two laser surgeries to lessen the discoloration of her disfigurement. Blake described it as “veins that go awry.” At 4, Channing went through a second, more invasive surgery to treat the malformation.

While she’s now a healthy eight-year-old, her situation motivated the couple to help others who may not be as fortunate to repair or remove facial malformations. For more information on Share A Smile, call 972-208-8813.