Mil gracias to all of our dedicated volunteers from Districts 5340, 4100 and 5330 who all worked so hard to make the October clinic successful! We greatly appreciate too all the medical, dental and lay volunteers. Thanks for your dedication to our kids!

A special thank you to Veronica Morales RDH BSDH, and to her parents and friends who started the TSF backpack project for our surgery patients. It’s a wonderfully creative idea, that serves a very practical purpose! Well done!

We had a great clinic this last weekend. 86 Dental patients on Friday and 59 on Saturday. Isn’t that a record? 2 surgeries were done in our facility on Friday and 5 more in the hospital on Saturday. In addition several ear tube surgeries were done on Saturday. We did not have the use of the General Hospital this trip due to an extensive remodel that is underway. Victor Celis and Jorge Guevara two of our long time supporters in Ensenada and members of the Ensenada Centenaria Rotary arranged for us to use the Ensenada Navy Hospital. All the members of our surgery team had nothing but good things to say about the hospitality of the staff of that facility. Victor Celis, Kim Muslusky and Bob Chalfa had a meeting with Admiral Gomez Leyva, the commander of the facility on Saturday and were told the facility would be available to us any time we need it. It is really great to have a backup facility that we can use if the Hospital is not available. Also, Dr Freymiller again said that one or two surgery rooms for minor procedures would be a real advantage in getting more patients treated. We will be looking for donation to build a 2nd floor above the patio to make room for the new Operating Rooms.

Thanks to all of you who attend and you who work behind the scenes at home for the very important part each one of you play in this wonderful humanitarian project. The Board of Directors

Our surgery staff provided 20 cleft-related surgeries that Saturday at the hospital. Our dental staff treated over 120 patients over the weekend. Our patients received ENT treatments, speech therapy, xrays, etc. We were treated to super lunches provided by Hugh Kramer and friends at the clinic, and Vecinos de Baja at the General Hospital. Generous Rotarians from District 5330 provided bag lunches for our patients and families. Hardworking Rotarians from both Districts 5340 and 4100 added their service. We had students from UCLA, USD, UCSD, Loma Linda, Tijuana School of Dentistry to help as well. Crafts were provided by Learning Tools for Global Schools with Penny Bollinger and her spouse. TSF is truly blessed to have so many dedicated and caring individuals to help carry on our mission.

Many thanks to all the dedicated volunteers who worked so hard at the TSF November Clinic. We were helped not only by people from the San Diego area, but also from Arizona, Seattle, Washington, San Francisco, Kentucky, Texas and Baja, California. Thank you all for your efforts on behalf of our children.

Pictured here is Adriana María (Alondra) Madrid Morales, President of the Guasave, Sinaloa Rotary Club presenting a plaque to Thousand Smiles President Kim Muslusky. Everyone at Thousand Smiles says “Mil Gracias” to Alondra and all the Rotarians from Guasave for their continuing efforts bringing needy children to our clinics.