Federation Coordinator: Rosemary Brown
Operation Smile
Operation Smile is just one of the many partnerships served by the Delmar Progress Club in conjunction with the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Every year, our members gather to sew muslin dollies, no-no arm bands and hospital gowns for children around the world in need of cleft palate surgery.
Operation Smile was founded in 1982 when Dr. William Magee, a plastic surgeon and his wife Kathleen, a nurse and clinical worker, traveled to the Phillippines with a group of medical volunteers to repair children’s cleft lips and palates. Approximately three hundred people begged for their assistance, but they were only able to help forty children. The Magees promised they would return to help more children. They began soliciting donations for surgical equipment and supplies and assembled a volunteer team of eighteen doctors, nurses and technicians to launch their medical mission to the Phillippines. They helped a hundred more patients, but hundreds more waited and “Operation Smile” was born!
The Delmar Progress Club continues to support this worthy endeavor and has also provided financial assistance to aid this cause. We believe that “every child deserves a beautiful smile”!
To learn more visit operationsmile.org
Heifer International
Heifer International is another partnership that the Delmar Progress Club generously supports. Together with other state clubs, we have won the GFWC national award for our ongoing financial support to Heifer.
Heifer International was founded by a Midwest farmer, Dan West, who went to the front lines of the Spanish Civil War as an aid worker. His mission was to provide relief. but he soon discovered the meager single cup of milk rationed to the weary refugees once a day was not enough. He subsequently concluded, “rather than a cup, why not a cow?” That philosophy still inspires Heifer’s effort to end world hunger once and for all. Heifer International empowers families to turn hunger and poverty into hope and prosperity. By donating animals as partners, many families gain new sustainable income for building schools, creating agricultural cooperatives and funding small businesses. Their mission is to “pass on the gift” as each recipient passes on the first female offspring of the original gift creating a sustainable future for another impoverished family. Why not help in aiding the war against world hunger by supporting this worthy cause!
To learn more visit www.heifer.org
Canine Companions
This is Sandy, an honorary member of the Delmar Progress Club for many
years. Sandy and our dear member, the late Lois Dillon, shared innumerable stories at our annual banquets of actual people whose lives were positively transformed by the services of a Canine Companion. Canine Companions for Independence, a GFWC partnership, provides service dogs for people with physical, cognitive or developmental disabilities. Club members Marie Liddle and Deborah Mazzone took over for Lois after her death and they continue to foster and promote our Club’s commitment to this wonderful cause.
To learn more visit Canine Companions for Independence