Operation Smile
Submitted by Shannon Regan
William Hadfield is a fifth-grade student at Angelo L. Tomaso (ALT) School in Warren, New Jersey and has big dreams to spread kindness to children who are undergoing surgery for a cleft palate or cleft lip.
After watching a commercial on TV about cleft palates, Hadfield decided that he wanted to write letters to children in South America who were in the process of having corrective surgery.
After thinking about the idea further, Hadfield decided to seek out help from his cousins to do the same, and it wasn’t long before Hadfield emailed his Spanish Teacher, Noralys Rebimbas, to suggest that his peers in Spanish class also write letters.
“Hi Mrs. Rebimbas, I wanted to talk to you about an idea I had and I think it would be a good Spanish assignment. I think we should all write letters to kids that are getting surgery for Operation Smile. We can write the letters in Spanish and this way they can feel like they have friends in America that are thinking about them. Do you want me to write my letter and then when we collect a lot of letters from everyone in the school, I can mail them to the kids?”
Of course, Mrs. (Señora) Rebimbas was very happy to take Hadfield’s suggestion and she even widened the scope by inviting all third, fourth, and fifth-grade students from Woodland School and ALT to create letters for children in South America undergoing surgery.
At the close of the assignment, Hadfield was able to take home 211 letters from the children of Warren Township Schools. The letters will be hand-delivered to children by surgeons through Operation Smile.
Hadfield’s mother, Dr. Stella Mellas, who is a doctor of orthodontics in Basking Ridge, and Mrs. Rebimbas are both extremely proud of William for coming up with such a thoughtful, creative, and kind project. According to Señora Rebimbas, “These cards will certainly bring a smile, ‘sonrisa,’ to the children who receive them.”
Photos by Warren Township Public Schools
