Just Keep Smiling - Anna Nelson, Miss Plano

When people ask me what is one of my greatest assets, I always answer, “My smile.” So when our Service Learning Director asked if I wanted to help with a mission to help others smile, I of course said, “Yes!” So on Friday and Saturday, November 2 and 3, I had the privilege of volunteering with a dentistry mission in Houston at the Spring Branch Family Development Center. The mission was sponsored by the Texas Dental Association Smiles Foundation and is known as the Texas Mission of Mercy (TMOM). TMOM is a large multi-day dental mission that brings hundreds of dentists, dental professionals and other volunteers from across Texas together to donate their professional services. Their goal is to relieve immediate pain and restore smiles.

I joined 42 other students from Lon Morris, more than 400 dentists, and over 100 other volunteers from many walks of life. Over the two days we helped at least 800 people get dental work performed that was needed but they could not afford. Our job was to assist the patients in getting the paperwork filled out, walk them from station to station, keep the area clean, help to set up and tear down the tents, and my favorite part was to talk to them to get them to relax. The days were long! I had to be there by 6:30 in the morning both Friday and Saturday morning. Although it seemed as though our work was never ending, watching the patients smiling as they were leaving made it all worthwhile.

When asked what my favorite part about helping these two days, my response was easy. Getting to help others feel that their smile is special and telling them as they left to "Just Keep Smiling!"