Ball and Smith Exemplify Y Core Values

Through their work with Operation Smile, Devilfish senior teammates Loren Ball and Emily Smith share the Y core values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. Read more about their mission trips in the following article featured on the  Westfield Patch:

"Westfielders Bring Hope, Smiles to Foreign Faces

Emily Smith and Loren Ball agree their mission trips with Operation Smile have been life changing.

By Elizabeth Alterman

A great smile is something Westfield High School seniors Loren Ball and Emily Smith will never take for granted.

The young women recently went on life-changing missions to Peru and Paraguay with Operation Smile and learned how a surgery that is commonplace in the United States can rewrite a person's entire future in an impoverished country.

Operation Smile, a non-profit, charitable organization, provides free surgeries to children, and sometimes adults, who were born with cleft lips or cleft palates. While the surgeries cost as little as $240 each, raising that amount of money is often unfathomable for families in poorer nations.

For most of those who suffer from these conditions, the ability to speak and eat are greatly impaired. Further, they are often ostracized within their communities and struggle with loneliness and isolation.

While this was the first Operation Smile mission trip for the volunteers, Ball and Smith have been actively involved in supporting the cause for several years.

As a sophomore at WHS, Ball was asked to run the school's Operation Smile club as several of its members were graduating. Not wanting to see the club disband, Ball said she enlisted best friend Smith to help her keep it going.

"Our junior year, we had 25 members and now there are 60," she said. 

Ball and Smith noted that it took a while to get to that number, but with the support of their friends, their swim teammates and Ball's brother, the club is going strong.

Smith said during a club day at the WHS, banners showing before and after pictures of those who'd received surgeries had a big impact on students thinking about joining a service group.

"The kids were like, 'This is a club where you're making a difference,'" Smith said.

The group hosts several fundraisers and toy drives throughout the year. The volunteers agree that they no longer think in terms of dollars raised but in surgeries that the club has made possible.

In order to go on a mission, Ball and Smith explained, a volunteer must attend an International Student Leadership Conference. The duo traveled to Beijing for a week last August before applying to attend a mission training in Virginia this January. They were both selected for a trip this spring. 

While on their mission trips—Ball went to Peru in May while Smith traveled to Paraguay in March—the volunteers said they were able to see the far-reaching effects of their efforts.

Following each surgery, children receive a "Smile Bag" which contains a mirror, allowing them to see their new smiles, a comb, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a toy, a coloring book and crayons. Ball arrived in Peru with 75 pounds of items the club had collected through donations at school while Smith carried 70 pounds of toys and other donated supplies to distribute. Both agreed the toys and other simple items such as toothbrushes made them instantly popular with the children in the countries they visited.

"I think that you really realize how lucky you are and how much you have because you are surrounded by people who have absolutely nothing," said Ball, who noted that inexpensive novelties like bubbles brought endless joy to children who hadn't seen them before.

"They were so excited; just the sight of bubbles made them so happy," Ball continued. "They thought it was the coolest thing. It was just nice to see that we can make a difference in these little kids' lives."

In addition to playing with the children and preparing them and their families for the surgeries, the seniors gave presentations on dental hygiene, nutrition and proper hand washing, which, for many children, was new and vital information.

Ball and Smith said while it was wonderful to see so many receive the help they need, there are others for whom surgery is more complicated or time-consuming who are turned away.

During Smith's trip to Paraguay, 151 children and adults were screened and 97 surgeries were performed. Ball said on her mission, 140 were screened and 114 surgeries were completed.

The volunteers said there are often five operating rooms functioning simultaneously. A surgery on just a cleft lip or palate, can take 40 minutes but for someone with both it can take 90 minutes.

Smith and Ball agreed it was very emotional to see families saying goodbye to their young children ahead of surgery and again, when they see their loved ones following the surgery with their new smiles.

"It was awesome; I can't say enough about the trip," said Ball, who recalled a story that an anesthetist shared with her.

The doctor told Ball while on a mission trip to Africa, a 35-year-old man who had undergone surgery returned and the anesthetist expected the man to thank him but instead the patient said, "Now I can get a wife." Ball said it was hearing that story that really illustrates that so much more than just a smile has been changed, someone's entire future has been improved. Ball said many children who were previously ashamed to go to school, have the courage to return to their studies.

Ball and Smith said they are both thrilled that they will be able to continue what they've started as the schools they will attend in the fall—Boston College and Penn State, respectively—both have Operation Smile clubs.

Ball, who worked in the operating room during her mission, credits the trip with helping her decide to pursue a degree in pediatric nursing.

"This entire organization is the reason why I want to be a nurse. It's just such a rewarding experience," she said. "Especially after coming back from a mission, there are just so many little things you can do to help people."

Smith and Ball also volunteer right here at home. Smith said she works with Agape, the soup kitchen program run out of The Presbyterian Church in Westfield and has been on mission trips with her church.

Ball said she and a friend run the school's food pantry connection. Every Thursday, they go to Manhattan Bagel and collect extra bagels and deliver them to St. Helen's Church in Westfield where they feed the hungry every weekend with the bagels.

The friends said they would encourage everyone to visit Operation Smile's website to learn more about volunteering and read the inspiring stories of patients whose lives have been improved by the surgery.

"Donating just $1 can help," Smith said. "There's so much that you can do. Tell your children about the club. If you're a doctor or a nurse, you can go on a mission. You just need to apply. There's a place for everybody within the organization."

To learn more, visit www.operationsmile.org."

 source: Westfield Patch