Smile Train Stories

St. Louis, Mo — Last August, teams from around St. Louis gathered at McNair Park, 20 miles outside of St. Louis, for blue skies, fun times, friendly competition, and to play their hearts out to give children in another part of the world new smiles.

Since 2008, Valari Quarando has organized the Annual Smile Train Charity Softball Tournament, and every year the event gains in popularity. A dedicated Smile Train supporter, Valari is no stranger to clefts: she was born with a cleft lip in 1979, “I was lucky enough to be born in a country where this birth defect can be fixed quite easily, so I wanted to help the children who aren’t as lucky.”

The last three tournaments raised more than $3,000 and the hopes were high to do even better this year. With an amazing turn out and the generosity of participants, volunteers, and local businesses, over $1,700 was raised that will go directly to Smile Train to provide free surgery and follow up care to desperate children.

My brother John Quarando and brother-in-law Brett Willbrand have organized a team to play in the tournament every year since it began. This year their team, Cobra Kai, won the tournament for the first time! I have never seen a team more excited to win. Not only do we get to raise money for new smiles for the little kids of Smile Train, but we get to put smiles on all of the players’ faces as well. I can’t wait till next year!

Thanks to Valari, the players, volunteers, sponsors, and everyone involved in the tournament for giving the kids in our programs something to smile about! Be sure to check out some of the photos from the event.

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Last week 7 improv comedy troupes gathered for five amazing shows in support of Smile Train. We are pleased to have the event’s organizer, Heather Clisby, as our first Smile Train Guest Blogger.

Denver, CO – If you’ve ever watched TV’s ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’ or had an odd cousin that talked to himself, then you’re familiar with the spontaneous insanity of comedy improv, the fine (sometimes crude) art of Make Stuff Up and Hope It’ll Be Funny. And I speak for all comedy improv performers when I say: Honest to god, we can’t help it. Why? Because it feels like flying, minus TSA and barf bags.

A while back, I approached my Denver-based comedy troupe, Rodents of Unusual Size, and said simply, “Let’s do a benefit show for Smile Train. We make people laugh here in Denver. Why not make them smile in other countries?” Since the first rule of improv is to say “Yes, and…” to everything, they had no choice in the matter. And just like that, an annual tradition was born.

What began as a singular effort in 2008 has grown into 7 troupes, performing 5 shows over 4 days. My ‘comedy husband’, Steve Loukas,  and I organized 50 performers, sound/light technicians and volunteers to translate comedy hijinks into cold, hard cash for the noble Smile Train mission. All shows are held at the wonderful Avenue Theater in downtown Denver, our cozy home base.

I was born with a facial deformity (not a cleft palate, a hemangioma) and well understand the sheer cruelty and physical discomfort that such a condition can render. Lucky for me, I was born in the United States to concerned parents and knowledgeable doctors who worked hard to correct my situation. But in remote villages in a developing nation, how is a parent to know about such a surgery? Or even think about raising the necessary funds for the procedure? Not all kids are as fortunate as I was but certainly, all are deserving of a second chance.

And this is what I explain at the beginning of every show: “So many problems in the world I cannot fix – world hunger, AIDS, war veterans – most too big to get my head around. But this! This is something I can fix. This life changing surgery costs $250 – boom. Done.”

When I tell people that, I see their eyes light up. Finally, a solution that costs so little and does so much good!

We kicked off Wednesday night (August 17) featuring the Rodents of Unusual Size and Intentionally Left Blank for some family-friendly entertainment. A line of empty Mason jars lined the front edge of the stage, each with a performer’s name taped to the front – the now infamous, “Jars of Pains.” (Later in the fall, I’ll fill them with homemade apple sauce or spaghetti sauce and give one to each performer.)

The host encouraged the audience to put money in the jar of their favorite – or least favorite – comedian. The three performers with the most money in their jar play in the dreaded game of Mousetraps where the stage is covered in mousetraps and the players are blindfolded and spun for maximum disorientation. The bold remove their shoes; the meek wear socks even on their hands. Cringe-worthy? Yes. Hilarious? Absolutely. Lots of squealing goes on, always a good sign.

Inevitably, somebody tells somebody they are on fire and “You need to stop, drop, and roll!” In improv, there are no refusals, a player must say “Yes!” to everything so down they go onto the mousetraps. Yeeeow!

These jars are big money makers for us. I saw one woman put $40 in another jar just to make sure her daughter, Sarah, didn’t have to play this game. (Alas, Sarah had to play anyway and miraculously, survived.)

Thursday’s show was also family friendly — if your family is made up entirely of super raunchy comedians. Players from several local troupes joined to form ‘Gay v. Str8’ which was exactly what it sounds like. About 20 performers – half gay, half not – competed before judges to determine who had the most comic chops.

The last half of the show was done in long-form improv, where a theme is pre-decided. Enter, “The Housewives of Colfax,” Colfax being a street famous in Denver for being well stocked with seedy, gritty characters. Performers create scenarios using these characters and rotate in and out, creating story lines and resolutions. Hard to do and even harder when you have to be funny.

Friday night’s show featured Monkey’s Uncle and All of the Above, which produced many a gut-busting moment. It was their decision to turn the “Jars of Pain” into the “Jars of Pleasure” – encouraging people to donate to see their favorite performer in the popular rendition of “Historic Dance-O-Rama.” It’s hard to dance as the Berlin Wall, I must say.

The first show on Saturday night featured Out of the Basement, which included some of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. After this show ended, one of the performers, Mark, whom I had only met at the Thursday night show, approached me with a giant wad of cash. “Here, Heather,” he said as he pressed it into my hand, “I gathered this from my family. It’s $175.” I hugged him, thanked him and hurried backstage, to prepare for the next show.

Moments later, I was preparing for the 8 p.m. show and suddenly, the enormity of his gesture hit me hard. I burst into tears, a bizarre delayed reaction that had my headliner troupe concerned. All that running around, planning, emailing, phone calling – and his incredible generosity brought the point of it all back in resounding clarity.

The closing show, starring those high-energy nutjobs, The Denver Wigs, was a blazing success. The house was full and never quiet. The Wigs are run like a very tight ship, captained by the founder and director, Steve Loukas. Steve’s attention to detail and his leadership inspire his troupe.

Best of all? They hand out pies. Not kidding. Blueberry, apple and pecan. Nearly every audience member gets one. (Note for next year: Don’t put the pie table in front of the video screen making it look like the Smile Train kids are trying to eat the pies. D-oh!) Plus, there’s a raffle drawing. Folks win t-shirts, posters, theater tickets and gift cards. And did I mention there are pies?

We are still counting the money from the show and donations are still coming in to our Smile Train page but thus far, we’ve raked in about $2,300 and hopefully it will reach $2500.  Considering the state of the economy and that 99.9% of all comedians are poor, this is a hard-won victory for us. And for the kids. See you in 2012!

Wake Forest, NC - Registration is well under way for the 4th Annual Smile Train Tri. This amazing event was started in 2008 by triathlete and race director Rebecca Warriner.

The “Miles For Smiles” triathlon is  a sprint triathlon: participants compete in a 250 meter swim, 12 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run throughout Wake Forest. With the generous support of BASF and other local sponsors, 100% of all of the race fees go directly to Smile Train. Adding in donations that many of the competitors make and collect through the Tri-and-Fundraise program, the Smile Train Tri has already accounted for over $83,000 in donations to provide free cleft lip and plate surgeries.

The race may be hard, but it’s not as hard as every day is for these parents and children who need our help.”
- Rebecca Warriner

With a new course, Rebecca and her team of volunteers have set the bar higher than ever for 2011, hoping to collect $17,500 in registration fees and $15,000 in seperate donations to bring their total to a whopping $115,500. That would be more than 460 cleft surgeries in 4 years!! In honor of this wonderful milestone, Nestle’s 100 Grand has donated their candy bars for the participants, volunteers, and spectators.

A very special thank you to Rebecca, and all of the sponsors, participants, and volunteers for helping us create so many smiles.

Sign up for the Smile Train Triathlon today!

The 4th Annual Smile Train Triathlon was an outstanding success!! Last weekend, over 400 competitors and hundreds of volunteers and spectators converged on Wake Forest, NC and raised more than $30,000 for Smile Train.

We’d like to extend our deepest thanks to everyone involved in the Smile Train Triathlon. Be sure to check out the slideshow below and share your stories from the event in the comments section.

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New York - Over the last few weeks, numerous musicians and bands have raised the bar with special fundraisers to provide free surgeries for desperate children: using their talents to fund our talented partners so that every child can smile. In fact, so many musicians have come forward with their support that it almost seems like we have our own Smile Train record label. We’d like to give a big shout out to all of our wonderful supporters and spread the word about how they’re helping.

Jukebox the Ghost. Jesse Kristin, the drummer of this acclaimed Indie group was born with a cleft and has made it his mission to help others who aren’t as lucky as he was.

I was born with a cleft lip and palate and was extremely fortunate to have access to sensitive, talented, and passionate medical staff for over 17 years of my life, without which my childhood and early adolescence would have been entirely different.  This is just a very small way of giving back and helping kids who are in desperate need of the smallest bit of attention I was lucky enough to receive.

Jukebox the Ghost is performing on the Rombello Cruise from Sept. 29- Oct. 3 with other great acts and are generously raffling off a cabin for the cruise with all proceeds going to Smile Train.

Oksana Kolesnikova. A fan favorite of celebrities and throughout Beverly Hills, world renowned composer and pianist, Oksana, has recently released a special edition album to benefit the children in our programs.

As a mother, I know how precious your child’s smile is. The impact of removing a child’s facial deformity and giving them the beautiful smile they deserve is life-changing…and, it can happen in a handful of minutes! This gift creates such joy and restores hope for their entire family. I am honored to share my music with Smile Train. Please come aboard!

Ready for the Sunshine. Dr. Ralph Gonzalez of the band Luminet, has been supporting Smile Train for years,  culminating in the creation of a compilation album entitled, Ready for the Sunshine: Indie Artists for Smile Train. The band features major Indie artists as well as relatively unknown artists who have donated their songs so that all proceeds will from the album will go to create new smiles.

In 2009, I wrote a song for Smile Train and over the course of 18 months managed to secure donated tracks from established indie bands like Camera Obscura, Lloyd Cole, Taken by Trees, and Jens Lekman among others. The result is 15 lovely songs from around the world (admittedly mine is the weakest!) which most people will have not yet heard.

Andy Mason. Andy shares his musical skills with children throughout the world with his award winning concerts at schools, day cares, libraries, state fairs and if there’s one thing that Andy knows how to do, it’s smile. With his latest song, Smile! Andy hopes to create smiles for kids that will never see him perform and may never hear his music. All proceeds from the downloads of his new song go to Smile Train so that desperate children can know what its like to smile for the first time in their lives.

All of these wonderful musicians deserve a standing ovation and have our undying gratitude and thanks  for their efforts to help the kids in our programs!

For those that have been following some of our many amazing musicians as they create smiles for their fans and our patients, we’d like to share some exciting news.

Andy Mason is taking his Smile! on tour in 2 countries and 4 states! Be sure to check out the video for Smile! and remember that all sales of the song go to Smile Train:)

Oksana Kolesnikova‘s Smile Train benefit album continues to soar with proceeds already making their way to our partner hospitals to provide free surgeries!

Ready for the Sunshine, a stellar compilation from major Indie artists from around the world to benefit the children in our programs, is selling strong and blaring through the headphones of our Smile Train employees.

Jukebox the Ghost has created a new video to promote their raffle for Smile Train featuring their song “So Let Us Create.”