The Augusta Regional Dental Clinic will participate in Giving Tuesday next week with the goal of raising $6,500 to provide free dental visits to 650 school-aged children in the SAW area by June 2022.
Every year since 2012, people around the world have celebrated the Tuesday after Thanksgiving by giving to their favorite nonprofits. It’s a day that encourages people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.
The ARDC will seek support from the community on Giving Tuesday to fund its school program called ORCAS. Through this program, the clinic’s team provides dental visits to hundreds of medically underserved children in the Staunton-Augusta County-Waynesboro area. The visits are at no out-of-pocket cost to the enrolled families and take place directly at the children’s school which helps lower dentist anxiety.
“We have had to discontinue our program in 2020 due to the pandemic and are now facing a higher than usual demand from partnering schools and school nurses. Many families have had to delay dental care in 2020 and we are now catching up to make sure every child in our community has access to the care they need”, said Sophie Parson, ARDC executive director.
Eleven schools have enrolled in the program for the current school year. That represents about 650 children and the ARDC is expecting more in the coming weeks. The clinic hopes to gather enough support on Giving Tuesday to be able to meet the increased demand from local elementary schools.
To help them reach their goal, they received the generous support of two corporate sponsors. Blue Ridge Oral Surgery and the Rotary Club of Waynesboro have pledged to match every dollar given on Giving Tuesday up to $3,600.
Anyone interested in helping the ARDC maximize the generosity of their sponsors can donate via this webpage or mail a check by midnight on Nov. 30th with the memo line “Giving Tuesday 2021”.
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