Celebrating five decades of helping children
This Thursday evening will be a hive of activity when supporters of FACES: The National Craniofacial Association come together to eat, drink, play, and make a difference at the 50 Years of FACES charity fundraiser.
The evening will be filled with good food, drinks, games for prizes of wine and more, a marvelous silent auction, aerial acrobat performances by Sora Sol, and music by hometown hero Roger Alan Wade. The gala event kicks off at 5:30 p.m. at the Chattanooga Whiskey Event Hall on Riverfront Parkway.
Although FACES is a national organization, it began locally. Debbie Fox, a young girl from Soddy Daisy, was born in 1955 with a facial cleft. When she was 14 years old, Dr. Milton Edgerton at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Medical Center created a new face for her.
Many people involved in Debbie’s care began thinking “beyond the local horizon” and were interested in extending services to other children with like facial malformations.
Her family and teacher, along with a group of physicians, lawyers, and philanthropists, formed The Debbie Fox Foundation, now called FACES: The National Craniofacial Association.
Currently headquartered here in Chattanooga, FACES makes facial surgeries possible for children and adults across the nation by financially assisting with travel costs for specialist care.
The stories of the children helped by FACES are the stuff to warm your heart. Take for example Elena, who went from speaking by sign language and eating entirely by g-tube to talking and getting a fair portion of the calories she needs each day by “eating by mouth”, as her family calls it.
Thanks to surgeries that were not possible when she was born, the tracheostomy tube that was vital to her early survival has been removed, she chews and swallows and speaks (eventualities that were not guaranteed), the health of her eye has been maintained despite a detached retina last year, and most recently she has the help of a new generation of hearing aids that brings her hearing almost to normal range.
“To be honest, when Elena was born, we never could have foreseen the brilliance that has greeted us in her team of doctors, nor the kindness of people we don’t even know helping us with all the expenses we’d never imagined,” her mother Amy recalls. “Just when I couldn’t figure out how to pay for a return flight and rooms for a surgery complication, I discovered that FACES helps families with travel costs, room and board. You, and all the people who have kindly donated to FACES, have been at our side ever since and we thank you.”
FACES also organizes and runs a summer camp for kids with facial differences. FACES Camp is designed for children with any type of craniofacial anomaly such as cleft lip and palate, Apert syndrome, Crouzon syndrome, Pfeiffer syndrome, Treacher Collins syndrome, Goldenhar syndrome, etc., as well as from accident, burn, or disease.
The camp encourages children with facial differences to gain independence by being social and making friends with other kids who have similar medical issues. The FACES Camp Director, Ashley Rhodes, was born with Crouzon syndrome and also has a child with Crouzon syndrome.
Young adults with facial differences volunteer as camp counselors. The camp features typical camp activities including talent nights, arts and crafts, archery, canoeing, ropes course, zip line, rock wall climbing, hiking, swimming, and horseback riding.
Over the years, artists, entertainers, local celebrities, and caring residents of the city have come together to help support this amazing organization and wonderful cause.
Although a child may look different, he or she is still just a child who wants to be accepted by peers, loved, and encouraged to succeed. You can help change lives by attending the fun and uplifting event, or by donating to FACES at faces-cranio.org