News & Events
Students Are All Smiles Over College Response to ‘Send a Soldier a Smile’ Campaign
What’s happening in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn’t give most folks there a whole lot to smile about. But there’ll be smiles aplenty when U.S. troops in both countries open the oral healthcare packages they’ll soon receive thanks to the hard work of City Tech dental hygiene students and their counterparts in the College’s Student Veterans Club.
The students’ effort, now known nationwide as the “Send a Soldier a Smile” campaign thanks to Daily News and other media coverage, began with a chance remark by a client in City Tech’s Dental Hygiene Clinic. Recently returned to the States from a tour of duty in Iraq, the client mentioned that the troops were in need of hygiene supplies. Overhearing the comment, Professor Gwen Cohen-Brown asked specifically about oral healthcare products. The client responded that there was always a need for those as well. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash and dental floss were often in short supply or very expensive to purchase.
Cohen-Brown later suggested to her students that they organize a fundraiser to provide oral healthcare supplies for as many troops as possible – a suggestion that instantly met with an enthusiastic response. The supplies would go to military friends and relatives of City Tech students, faculty and staff who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan to be shared with their fellow soldiers.
In what Cohen-Brown describes as “a tremendously successful effort, far exceeding expectations,” members of the City Tech chapter of the Student American Dental Hygiene Association (SADHA) joined forces with the equally enthusiastic members of City Tech’s Student Veterans Club on April 19 to complete phase one of the fundraiser. They set up tables in the College’s heavily traveled Atrium and walked the halls campus-wide selling toothbrushes and soliciting cash donations to aid the campaign.
“The dental hygiene students, SADHA faculty advisors Professors Marilyn Cortell and Shantel Childs-Williams together with department administrative assistant Francine Brown encouraged everyone they encountered to support the campaign,” notes Cohen-Brown. “The response was nothing short of awe-inspiring, and hundreds of students, faculty and staff also availed themselves of the blank cards on hand to write notes of appreciation to our soldiers for the difficult job they are doing in the Middle East.
“Moreover, donations continue to pour in from people who were not on campus that day or who didn't hear about the drive until too late to participate,” Cohen-Brown adds. “We are receiving letters of support and additional donations from people as far away as Maryland who read about the campaign in the papers or on the City Tech website.” Cohen-Brown also expressed appreciation to Colgate-Palmolive and Proctor & Gamble for their support of the project.
The evening of April 14 brought an invitation from City Tech President Russell K. Hotzler and the College’s foundation to bring the campaign to the annual Donor Recognition Reception for major supporters. “The students appreciated the invitation to participate in this event,” says Cohen-Brown. “The response from reception guests was overwhelmingly supportive, and more than 30 donors wrote notes to the troops.”
The students will take their campaign to a larger Brooklyn audience through an open-air fundraiser on May 10 at the Farmers Market in the plaza outside Brooklyn Borough Hall. And an invitation to extend the fundraising effort to other CUNY campuses soon will be made to the university-wide CUNY Veterans Liaison Steering Committee.
“The veteran students participating in the April 19 event were especially moved by the outpouring of support and enthusiasm by dental hygiene students and the generosity of the entire College community,” says Paul Schwartz, LCSW, faculty advisor to the City Tech Student Veterans Club. “Contributions ranged from handfuls of pocket change to one thousand dollars in cash from a single anonymous donor. In addition to the toothbrushes, toothpaste and other supplies the soldiers will be receiving, they will especially appreciate the hand-written notes that will be included in each healthcare package.”
Schwartz adds that he, Student Veteran Coordinator John Byrnes and assistant Nicole Greener, as well as Student Veterans Club President Joshua Tsihlis and other club members answered scores of questions and handed out literature about "Project W.I.N.," City Tech's program to strengthen and expand a wide range of services for veteran students. “The training and experience City Tech veteran students received during their military service,” adds Schwartz, “equipped them with the organizational and teamwork skills and sense of community and camaraderie to jump right into the ‘Send a Soldier a Smile’ campaign and give it their all.”
Cohen-Brown says that while she hopes that the need for our military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan will end soon, department students will repeat the campaign each semester for as long as they have to. “This effort on the part of City Tech’s dental hygiene and veteran students,” she adds, “is so wonderfully reflective of the tradition of community assistance for which the College long has been known. We are proud of them and grateful to all who are supporting their effort, just as we are grateful for the sacrifices our military men and women are making abroad.”
05/08/07
