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ENLARGE
Olivia Mertz, left, and Jemima Strong, both seniors at Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, will be traveling to Egypt next month for an Operation Smile mission trip, which will also serve as their senior project.
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ENLARGE
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Britany Milany, at 1-year, following the procedure sponsored by Operation Smile.
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ENLARGE
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Britany Milany, at 9 months, before her cleft lip surgery.
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CARBONDALE, Colorado — A pair of Colorado Rocky Mountain School students who began a local campaign to help spread smiles around the world have been invited to take their mission work abroad next month.
For their senior project, Olivia Mertz and Jemima Strong, both of Carbondale, will be traveling to Cairo, Egypt for 10 days in late March as part of an educational medical mission organized by Operation Smile.
The classmates started a local chapter of Operation Smile at CRMS in the fall of 2008 when they were juniors.
Operation Smile raises awareness and money to provide surgery in poverty stricken regions of the world for children with a birth defect known as cleft lip/cleft palate.
Mertz and Strong spent the last school year rallying fellow CRMS students to organize local fundraisers for Operation Smile to help cover the $250-per-surgery cost.
Last August, they attended an international leadership conference in Norfolk, Va., along with 500 other students from around the world.
“This was the first step we took toward making an Operation Smile medical mission a reality for us,” Mertz said.
Then, this past Jan. 15-18, they went to a mission training workshop, also in Norfolk, with 25 other students.
“At this workshop we learned about what it means to go on a medical mission,” Mertz said. “The primary role of a student on a medical mission is to educate.”
Traveling with a student sponsor and a medical team, they will be meeting families and children at hospitals, local schools and orphanages, and giving presentations about dental hygiene, oral re-hydration, burn care and nutrition.
They will also be spending time with children and families before and after their surgeries, and will even have the opportunity to sit in on surgeries.
“We knew when we started this that it was possible to go on a mission, so it's been a goal from the beginning,” Strong said. “I've never been to that part of the world, so it will be a totally new experience.”
The students are in the process of raising money for their trip, as well as collecting some 2,000 toothbrushes which they will take with them.
“We've been writing letters to local dentists and stores asking them to donate toothbrushes,” Mertz said. “A lot of the people we will be working with have never seen a toothbrush. Other families just have one toothbrush to share.”
After their return, they will also be required to give five presentations about their mission trip and the work of Operation Smile in local schools and other places around the community.
For more information about the students' work, e-mail opsmile@crms.org. Also, follow their blog while they're traveling at the Operation Smile website, www.operationsmile.org.
jstroud@postindependent.com
For their senior project, Olivia Mertz and Jemima Strong, both of Carbondale, will be traveling to Cairo, Egypt for 10 days in late March as part of an educational medical mission organized by Operation Smile.
The classmates started a local chapter of Operation Smile at CRMS in the fall of 2008 when they were juniors.
Operation Smile raises awareness and money to provide surgery in poverty stricken regions of the world for children with a birth defect known as cleft lip/cleft palate.
Mertz and Strong spent the last school year rallying fellow CRMS students to organize local fundraisers for Operation Smile to help cover the $250-per-surgery cost.
Last August, they attended an international leadership conference in Norfolk, Va., along with 500 other students from around the world.
“This was the first step we took toward making an Operation Smile medical mission a reality for us,” Mertz said.
Then, this past Jan. 15-18, they went to a mission training workshop, also in Norfolk, with 25 other students.
“At this workshop we learned about what it means to go on a medical mission,” Mertz said. “The primary role of a student on a medical mission is to educate.”
Traveling with a student sponsor and a medical team, they will be meeting families and children at hospitals, local schools and orphanages, and giving presentations about dental hygiene, oral re-hydration, burn care and nutrition.
They will also be spending time with children and families before and after their surgeries, and will even have the opportunity to sit in on surgeries.
“We knew when we started this that it was possible to go on a mission, so it's been a goal from the beginning,” Strong said. “I've never been to that part of the world, so it will be a totally new experience.”
The students are in the process of raising money for their trip, as well as collecting some 2,000 toothbrushes which they will take with them.
“We've been writing letters to local dentists and stores asking them to donate toothbrushes,” Mertz said. “A lot of the people we will be working with have never seen a toothbrush. Other families just have one toothbrush to share.”
After their return, they will also be required to give five presentations about their mission trip and the work of Operation Smile in local schools and other places around the community.
For more information about the students' work, e-mail opsmile@crms.org. Also, follow their blog while they're traveling at the Operation Smile website, www.operationsmile.org.
jstroud@postindependent.com
