Aboard the Smile Train, Tampa Bay Rays' Pitcher Makes Smiles Happen in Mexico Chat Sports | |
go to original February 3, 2015 |
Grant and Angie with a patient and her mother in Mexico.
Tampa Bay's Grant and Angie Balfour headed to Mexico this month to visit the Miles for Smiles charity. Smile Train is an international children’s charity dedicated to repairing cleft lip and palate. The procedure is very simple (taking around 45 minutes), inexpensive at $250, and changes a child's life. The surgery not only gives children smiles, it also helps them to eat, speak, and breathe much easier.
Nearly 170,000 children are born with cleft palate a year and most in developing countries cannot afford the procedure. Grant and Angie have been long time supporters throughout his career in baseball, going back to Grant’s first stint with the Rays.
The Rays and Athletics have each previously organized Miles for Smiles charity events with the help of the players' wives and friends of the teams, partially inspired by the Balfour's interest.
Grant and Angie have worked with the Rays to use funds from auctions, raffles, and ticket sales to aid Miles for Smiles in its mission to give children free cleft surgery.
Read the rest at Chat Sports
Through partnering with local hospitals and doctors in a teach-a-man-to-fish strategy, Smile Train provides free cleft surgery and follow up care to these desperate children. (Smile Train)
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