Thanks to hundreds of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers, the inaugural Missouri Mission of Mercy, held September 23-24 in Springfield, was a great success. More than $1.1 million of free care was provided. Without the generous contributions from event volunteers, sponsors and donors, MOMOM would not have been possible. More than 1,000 volunteers, including 178 dentists, spent Friday and Saturday providing care to 1,856 patients, including 1,447 fillings and 2,922 extractions, among other services. We do not have enough words to express our gratitude for your contribution of time, effort and selflessness ... Thank You. The next MOMOM currently is being planned, with the date and location to be announced. We hope you will find joy and inspiration in these stories shared and will plan to join us on our next Mission to be a part of the experience.
by DAVID STRUBLE, DDS • OZARK
Please let me tell you about a gift that I’ve recently received. I can’t place it in a box or hold it up and look at it. This present was unexpected when it was given, and it came from a host of others who didn’t even know they were giving me an enduring trea- sure. My small part of the very first Missouri Mission of Mercy event was surely the best return on my tiny investment that I’ve ever known. The gift is simply the chance to spend time with friends (and make a lot of new ones), see the profession that I love make me bust with pride and serve others in a joyous, almost Superbowl-like atmosphere. By now, you’ve seen some of the numbers. The number of patients seen, the dollar amount of services rendered, the number of teeth extracted. All very impressive. If you weren’t there though, you missed something that you cannot tally or even report clearly. I can tell you that there was a universal, unmistakable awe that we ALL felt and wished wouldn’t end. I was lucky enough to get a seat in the room with the planners of this adventure. Darren and Sarah Mahaffey assembled a dream team of busi- ness people, medical experts, dental colleagues and PEOPLE people, and proceeded to work them all silly—and dang if they didn’t make it fun, too. Every detail was examined. (I’ve imagined that at their wedding, the number of rice kernels thrown
was counted!) Other states shared valuable information about their MOM events, and some dentists from out of state came to participate in every capacity. Our local Ozarks Technical Col- lege, with its dental hygiene and dental assisting students worked with a drive and an excitement that was ... exciting! People with no connection to the profession of dentistry came out to set up chairs and partitions, serve meals to patients and workers, direct parking lots, hand out tooth- brushes and escort patients through the maze of reception and treatment areas. The Missouri State University baseball team was there to load heavy equipment. There was music and enter- tainment. The MDA staff worked from dawn to dusk. (I saw them climb the fence to get in to set up before 4 a.m.!) Awesome is an overused word, but it applies. Stationed between the reception area (which held almost a thousand potential patients) and the treatment areas, our group of volunteers got to direct where everyone would go for treatment. Some operative, some oral surgery, some hygiene. All wide eyed with anticipation and somewhat surprised and cheerful at the amazing scene around them. Most patients just couldn’t believe that something like that could be happening. They kept saying “this is so organized” and “everyone is so nice!” I could sense that for the first time, in a long time, many of them were thinking “I matter” to someone else. The Missouri Mission of Mercy has thrown a great light on situations that we cannot ignore.
Dr. Struble discusses a patient with Maxine Brown, who is a registered nurse and the mother of Dr. Sarah Mahaffey. Both were leads in the Routing area—the gateway to the clinic floor.
Our neighbors need us. Almost 30 years of practice has proven that to me, but seeing a mile-long line of people lined up in the darkness waiting to get out of pain and/or embarrassment has crystallized it in my mind. This is more than giv- ing others our monetary support. They need our HANDS. Those patients FELT the minds and hearts of the volunteers through their hands. Our gift of care to them was given back to us a thousand times over. Everyone was exhausted by Saturday night, but like my grandfather used to say ... it was a GOOD tired. What a rush! I am confident that most everyone at MOMOM will stand ready to help out when the next event comes. I trust that multiple areas of the state will take up the charge to keep this going. I hope that it won’t be long.
WE’VE GOT THEM! But, we’ve got too many pictures to print and you can’t watch the awesome MOMOM video from these pages! So, go online to
www.modental.org/momom to access all the extras that captured the day!
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