Smile Train Stories

Peking, China — Kip and Carmen Waistell aren’t your average couple. The Smile Train donors from Hereford, UK recently returned home from an amazing journey driving in classic Austen cars from Peking to Paris and raising money for Smile Train. They drove the cars, nicknamed Mrytle and Kotka, on a 7,000 mile trek and stopped at a number of Smile Train partners along the way to see how the money they raised was being used to give children new lives and smiles. We’re happy to post excerpts from Kip’s chronicle of this spectacular adventure. The first is from the start of their journey in Peking on Wednesday, May 25th.

I worked on the cars all morning discovering that some of the grease nipples were blocked, or the grease gun would not fit. Broke the new grease gun. Got cross and tried to make myself feel better by swearing a bit. Took ages trying to get grease to go where it should, (got it easily pretty well everywhere else!) checking oil levels, checking plugs, making sure all bolts/nuts tight.

After lunch, which left me feeling a bit “iffy”, we were off to the Peking Children’s Clinic, founded by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1921, to which we were driven by the local Smile Train representative, Elvis Chen, a charming fellow who had been with Smile Train only three months. We met Dr Zhou, the surgeon, who then introduced us to some of the kids and their parents.

We learned that there are cleft lips, cleft palates and cleft gums. Some kids suffer from the lot. Others have just one or two of the problems. We were told that cleft lips are done first, then the palate. These operations were carried out, preferably, at just a few months old, and the earlier it was done the better, though we were to learn in Mongolia that because of the distances involved to get kids to hospital, and the difficulties in promoting the programme, some children were being treated for the first time as late teenagers.

The hospital, of which the clinic formed part, was enormous. 1,800 beds and 4,000 staff. All the nurses wore head coverings, shoe coverings and overalls. The doctors all wore white clothes. No clutter anywhere, and very clean- this was what we found at all the clinics we visited.

The first patient we saw was a one year old boy who had had his cleft lip repaired, and was now returning to have the cleft palate seen to. He was accompanied by his parents, brother and granny. Elvis had given us gifts from Smile Train to give to them. Then we saw a 19 year old girl who was in for further work on a cleft palate, done some years previously. Finally we saw a four month old girl, Li Siyu, adorable, in for both cleft lip and palate work. It was all very moving, and some of the parents were in tears. Dr Zhou told us that his clinic had now done sixty-six operations with Smile Train, (in about a year since their relationship began), to whom a full dossier would be sent on each patient, with before and after photographs.”

New York, NY - Grab your irons and bring out your madras pants because registration is now underway for Skyline Restoration’s 3rd Annual Golf Classic Benefiting Smile Train!

Last year’s Golf Classic raised over $40,000 – enough to cover over 160 free cleft lip and palate surgeries and this year Skyline Restoration is looking to raise even more!

This amazing event is teeing off at the Village Club of Sands Point on Monday, July 18 at 10:00 am for registration and brunch. A noon shotgun start keeps the flow steady on 18 great and often challenging holes.

Special guests include the stars of the hit Broadway show Baby It’s You: Geno Henderson, Barry Pearl, and Crystal Starr.

When your scorecard’s full, be sure to head to the Club House for cocktails and dinner and end the day with the awards ceremony and raffle. Local sponsors have already committed to some great raffle prizes, but we’re sure we can all agree that the best prize is the one you’ll be giving to the desperate children in our programs, free surgery and a second chance at life.

For the full details of the event  and to sign up, check out the Golf Classic registration page.

We’d like to extend our deepest thanks to everyone at Skyline Restoration for putting this all together and for their wonderful dedication and commitment to helping kids with cleft lip and palate.