An Important Message from the Executive Director

I don’t normally post blogs like this, but these are urgent times.

The coronavirus is already taking a toll on the oral health of our patients (your neighbors) as stay-at-home orders have prevented them from coming to HealthLink for root canals on painful teeth, fillings of cavities, deep cleanings to maintain their health, and new patient exams to develop treatment plans.

Will you please make an urgent gift of $37 to ensure that the 335 people whose appointments were cancelled during this crisis are able to get into our office as soon as our doors open again?

We are doing everything we can to make sure we are ready to see patients once Governor Wolf lifts the stay at home order, but…

…We need your help to be able to extend clinic hours and replenish the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) that we donated to Abington Health to keep our volunteers and patients safe.

On my walk the other day, I exchanged smiles with a neighbor and it made me feel really good. Social distancing is necessary, but hard, and can be accompanied with feelings of loneliness and isolation. That smile connected me to my neighbor and reminded me that I’m not alone.

That small connection is so important in a time like this, but what if you couldn’t smile because of oral pain or didn’t feel comfortable smiling because of missing or discolored teeth? That is the reality for many of our patients.

Your gift today will provide comfort to each of our patients and reassure them that their appointment will be rescheduled quickly. Your gift will ensure that they will not have to continue to live with pain once the world reopens and will (quite literally) bring a smile to their face.

It will cost $12,400 to restock the shelves and extend the hours of the clinic for long enough to accommodate both the regularly scheduled appointments and the rescheduled appointments. That is about $37 per patient.

There are no extra funds in our budget to meet this unexpected need. But your gift of $37 will help a patient at HealthLink get the smile back that he or she deserves.

Your action is needed now. Please make your gift to ensure that our neighbors who are veterans and low-income adults have access to the oral care and treatment they need when the doors at HealthLink open again.

With a smile on my face and gratitude in my heart,

Raquel Braemer, CFRE Executive Director

P.S. Signing up for monthly giving is a wonderful way to spread smiles around our community all year round! It's as simple as selecting "Monthly" from the drop down menu next to "Donation Frequency" on the online donation form.