Jordan JOY

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Here's the follow-up letter from Smile Train regarding the awards:

Hi, I got back from Hollywood at 2am last night and my ears are still ringing from Sunday night when they announced… …“And the Oscar goes to… Smile Pinki!” You could hear the deafening roar and wild cheering from Hollywood to Bollywood and everywhere in between. This is a great moment for all of us who are part of Smile Train… and the “cast” of The Smile Train consists of more than a million people. It’s a great moment for our incredibly hardworking and dedicated, TINY staff of 43 people who do the work of 200 people! For all the members of our Board of Directors, Board of Governors and Medical Advisory Boards who have spent many years keeping The Smile Train on the right track. For our 1,200+ partner hospitals that are on the front lines every day providing more than 300 free cleft surgeries EVERY SINGLE DAY! For the 5,000+ surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, speech therapists, dentists, orthodontists, social workers and other healthcare workers who through their hearts and their hands give each and every one of our patients the safest and highest quality care possible. For our 1,000,000+ donors and supporters who have been so generous and kind and loyal. None of this would have ever happened without their donations.

Most of all, this is a great moment for the millions of children in the world who are suffering with clefts. Waiting and wondering when and if anyone is ever going to come along and help them the way we helped Pinki.
With all of this massive publicity and exposure, good will and good wishes, we will be able to help MANY more children MUCH FASTER than we ever dreamed.
And we aren’t just going to help MANY more children… we are going to help ALL of these children.
To all of you who have helped make The Smile Train possible I say thank you, thank you, thank you.
This Oscar is for you.
And for all those millions of kids with unrepaired clefts out there who are waiting for help, I say hold on.