Gift From the Heart dental charity seeks donations to expand reach

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Members of a Belleville charity providing free dental care to people in need are asking Canadians to help them in honouring a volunteer’s memory.

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Sonia Caceres, 75, died June 22. She was a dental hygienist who volunteered with Gift From the Heart, which is based in the Belleville-Quinte West area.

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The charity provides free, mobile dental care to people who would otherwise be unable to afford it. They include workers earning minimum wage, people without housing, and families who are struggling financially.

“Her dedication exemplified the spirit that has put this region on the map for compassionate care,” Gift From the Heart’s leadership wrote in a recent news release.

“Sonia understood what makes this organization special,” president and executive director Bev Woods, a registered dental hygienist, said in the release.

“We’re not a big charity with marketing budgets, but we’ve earned national respect because every donation – whether $5 or $500 – immediately helps someone who’s been forgotten by the system.”

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Caceres “wanted her passing to bring recognition” to Gift From the Heart, deputy executive director Kareen McKinnon wrote via e-mail.

The grassroots group’s National Day of Caring has inspired other dental-care providers to provide free services, she wrote, adding what began here is now “a model for all of Canada,” and Caceres “was a vital part” of that work.

“Dental offices from Vancouver to Halifax participate in our National Day of Giving because they see what’s possible when a community refuses to let neighbours suffer.

“The reality driving this success is heartbreaking,” the release stated.

“Currently, on that day, with supplies that we have garnered from our partners, we now reach 1,600” patients nationally, McKinnon wrote to The Intelligencer.

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“At the moment we are only helping locally about 40 a week and are desperately needing funding to ramp up to 120 people a month in the Bay of Quinte (region)”, she continued.

McKinnon explained it’s believed there are about 31,000 people in the area who, even with federal dental coverage, cannot afford care or cannot access it because some dentists do not provide care through the federal plan.

According to the release, “Local residents pull their own teeth with pliers because they can’t afford care. People die from untreated dental infections. Cancer survivors, single parents, and those experiencing homelessness choose between food and dental treatment.”

It stated the response to the national day is proof small communities can inspire big changes.

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To continue, however, the group needs donations to cover the cost of supplies, equipment, and the service’s other basic needs.

“When neighbours can’t eat, sleep, or work because of dental infections and pain, and can’t

afford the additional costs on top of the federal program that isn’t sufficient, every donation becomes a lifeline,” the release stated.

People with oral infections may seek treatment in a hospital’s emergency department, McKinnon wrote, yet may receive treatment only for the infection, not other contributing conditions. Those patients may therefore need repeat care, she wrote.

“We are seeing more and more people that we have to turn away that can’t eat, sleep, work and some are deathly ill” due to dental-health conditions, McKinnon reported.

For details or to donate, visit www.giftfromtheheart.ca.

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