Hello Friends and Family,

I am excited to share that I am now a Community Ambassador for Operation Smile Canada, and I will be doing my part to raise awareness for the children around the world affected by cleft lip, cleft palate, and other facial differences.

This charity is close to my heart, being born with a cleft lip and having recieved surgery when I was 4 months old, along with speech therapy, follow up appointments and multiple dental surgeries throughout my childhood. I am so fortunate to live in a country where medical care and resources are readily available.

However, 65% of the population (approximately 5 billion people) do not have access to these resources.

Globally, a baby is born with cleft lip and/or cleft palate every 3 minutes launching the family into a world of uncertainty and fear. When left untreated, cleft lip and palate can lead to serious health issues, hardships and social isolation, and without surgery as many as 90% of children born with cleft conditions will not see their 20th birthday.

Operation Smile mobilizes a world of generous hearts to heal children’s smiles and transform lives across the globe. With help from donors, medical volunteers and corporate partners, Operation Smile Canada transforms lives with surgeries that can take as little as 45 minutes and cost as little as $240
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To do my part, I decided to start my own personal fundraiser called: A SMILE for every MILE.

The goal of this fundraiser to raise awareness of the barriers and hardships faced by the cleft lip/palate community while supporting a healthy active life style.

I have pledged to run 1000 miles in 200 days, or a 5 mile (8 km) run each day. This is the distance of Brockville, Ontario to the centre to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.

My goal was to raise 1$ a Mile for a goal of 1000$ to fund 4 cleft lip/palate surgeries and thanks to my family and friends I crushed that goal. I now have new goal to provide 10 new smiles or $2,400. I hope you will please support my fundraising efforts by donating today!

I hope that you will join me in committing to your own personal pledge to complete a Mile (1.6km) of activity in support of Operation Smile Canada.

Thank you in advance. Your kindness will bring hope and deliver smiles across the miles!

Dillon