Statewide program restoring smiles and lives of women domestic abuse survivors gets Governor’s Award for Service and Volunteerism
AUGUSTA —- Dozens of Maine dental providers were celebrated in Augusta on May 9 when Finding Our Voices won the Governor’s Award for Service and Volunteerism for its program of donated dental care to women domestic abuse survivors.
Finding Our Voices won Outstanding Non-Profit Volunteer Program for Finding Our Smiles in the annual awards program managed on behalf of the Office of the Governor by Volunteer Maine, the state service commission. Six awards were presented at the ceremony.
The Finding Our Voices donated dental program, remarked Gov. Janet T. Mills at the ceremony, “delivers dignified high-quality care to low-income Maine women whose oral health has been impacted by abuse.”
“Through the dedication and compassion of its volunteer providers,” Mills continued in taped remarks, “Finding Our Smiles demonstrates how specialized volunteer service can restore not only oral health, but dignity, confidence, and a renewed sense of possibility.”
Forty dental providers in 10 Maine counties, including specialists and labs, are volunteering with Finding Our Voices with a total donated value over three years now topping $400,000. Examples of the generosity of every Maine dental provider in the program include more than $25,000 in donated treatments for six survivors from the oral surgeon Dr. Matt Lawler in South Portland and Dr. Rob McVety of Casco Bay Smiles in Falmouth fulfilling one patient’s extensive treatment plan with a donated value already exceeding $15,000.
Lauren Rice of Seaside Dental Hygiene Studio in Rockland has donated care for three survivors in her less than eight months with the volunteer program. She attended the May 9 award ceremony with Mandy Fitzsimmons, a dental assistant with Town Hill Dentistry on MDI, and Finding Our Voices CEO/Founder Patrisha McLean and Director of Operations Mary Kamradt.
Finding Our Voices is the grassroots nonprofit and sisterhood breaking the silence of domestic abuse and providing heart-healing and life-mending resources to Maine women domestic abuse survivors. Its programs include Finding Our Smiles, Get Out Stay Out funding, an online support group and healing retreats. For more information visit https://findingourvoices.net.
