Club Plans Smile-Filled Symposium

Author: Craigin Brown


Michael Azzara '02 is changing the face of developing world citizens — literally.

As president of Operation Smile at Middlebury, Azzara and nearly 20 members work together to educate the Middlebury community about the organization's fight to provide facial reconstructive surgery to children in developing countries.

Since its founding in the winter of 1998, Middlebury Operation Smile has been one of the most successful college chapters of this nonprofit medical services organization. For a spring 1998 fundraiser in Washington, D.C, the Middlebury group contributed $17,000 of the total $37,000 raised.

The Operation Smile national organization was founded in 1982 by S. William P. Magee, Jr., a plastic surgeon, along with his wife Kathleen, a nurse and clinical social worker.

The organization's goal is to bring together health care professionals within the public and private sectors to provide voluntary care, improving the quality of life for children and families. For 18 years, Operation Smile has provided free reconstructive surgery to tens and thousands of children in 20 developing countries and the United States who have such facial deformities as cleft palettes, cleft lips, burns and tumors.

In addition to providing a framework for students to participate in national Operation Smile events, the main goal of his local group is "to educate the Middlebury community of the medical needs in developing countries and the United States," said Azarra.

This year, the group will sponsor a symposium entitled "Health Care in Developing Countries: Perspectives and Possibilities," scheduled for Monday, April 1 through Sunday, April 7, coinciding with World Health Day.

A press release explained that the symposium would focus on economic, political, enviornmental, medical, cultural and volunteer perspectives.

In order to cover each perspective, Operation Smile will host such speakers as Howard Hu, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and Varun Gaun, an economist at the World Bank. There will be speakers each day of the week at 4:30 p.m. and then a weekend conference featuring individuals such as the founders of Operation Smile, specialists from the nonprofit organization CARE and members of institutions such as Yale University School of Medicine.

Each speaker will provide a unique viewpoint regarding the current situation of health care in developing nations. The group hopes that this symposium will "heighten awareness and understanding about the reality of global human health as we head into the 21st century," according to the press release.

The symposium's events will culminate with a semi-formal dinner and dance, held in Bicentennial Hall. Bill Magee, founder of Operation Smile, will be the keynote speaker.

Finally, on Sunday, there will be a concluding panel including all the featured speakers discussing the direction in which health care in developing countries is headed.

On Saturday, March 16, at the Snow Bowl, Middlebury Operation Smile will co-host an awareness and fundraising extravaganza with the Middlebury Mountain Club that will include skiing, other winter events and a sunset barbecue set to the groovy sounds of Hey Zeus, featuring Peter Park '02, Matt La Rocca '02, Drew Bennett '02 and Graham Fisk '02.

Middlebury Operation Smile is currently planning an initiative called Middlebury Smiles. Members of the group are taking close-up photos of the smiles of Middlebury College faculty, students and staff. Each week, they are posting new sets of smiles in different venues. The initiative started in Proctor Hall, and this week, they are plastering Bicentennial Hall with Middlebury grins. This initiative has several purposes. Middlebury Operation Smile is hoping that they will raise awareness about their organization, publicize the upcoming symposium, have fun and "implicitly emphasize the fact that we are happy and incredibly fortunate human beings, to be living such healthy lives," Azarra said, "in contrast with the lives of many less fortunate human beings in the world."