Our Youth

St. Agnes A.H.S. Students Know The Importance of a Child’s Smile

June 4, 2014
The track team from St. Agnes A.H.S., College Point, sprinted for the opportunity to join their school’s efforts to reclaim children’s smiles through Operation Smile.
The track team from St. Agnes A.H.S., College Point, sprinted for the opportunity to join their school’s efforts to reclaim children’s smiles through Operation Smile.

The students of St. Agnes A.H.S. in College Point have a big reason to smile.

The National Honor Society has begun a new initiative to raise money and awareness for Operation Smile.

Founded in 1982, Operation Smile is an international medical charity that was created to perform reconstructive surgeries on children born with cleft lip and cleft palate. The organization goes on medical missions to over sixty countries to help families that could not otherwise afford this procedure: each surgery costs only $240.

Junior Sarah Estevez learned about Operation Smile while studying cleft lip and cleft palate through the Science Research Program at St. Agnes.

Estevez asked to start a chapter of Operation Smile at school and the idea quickly grew into a cause that has involved the whole St. Agnes community.

After speaking about the topic at a recent Fine Arts Festival, students, teachers and families generously donated over $300 to support this charity.

Fundraising efforts continued the following week with a bake sale where students and teachers made treats with a smiley-face theme.

The St. Agnes track club joined the effort and ran a Smile Mile to celebrate the miracles being performed by Operation Smile. Proceeds from this event will be donated to fund more surgeries.

As a result of the work of the National Honor Society, track club, and all of the students and teachers who have been involved with this worthy cause, St. Agnes has raised more than enough money to fund three cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries for children around the world.