Another satisfied customer

This little cutie was treated on the Mobile Dental Van in a rural town in Oklahom over the weekend. Her daddy spent the past year in Iraq and was glad to be back doing what once seemed like mundane tasks such as taking his children to the dentist. Thanks to Dr. Brian Coerver, hygienist D'Nay Rowsey, and dental assistant Alicia Wilson, 17 children received dental care in an underserved rural part of our state.

You are a gift!

Wow- where has two months gone? Well, let me tell you!

November started out in Garfield County, then up the road a bit to Cherokee. A couple of elementary schools in Oklahoma City, the Southwest Head Start Program in Altus and a visit to Coalgate finished up the month. December has included three days Riverside Indian School, a few more elementary schools, and the Head Start Program in Muskogee. Whew!

Today I'm traveling back up to Cherokee to finish up the month before we take a few weeks off from traveling to celebrate the holidays.

I hope you have a warm, blessed and joyful holiday. Thank you for the gift of your time and resources in 2008.

Super Heros

Is it just me, or does Hygienist Charles Brucklier look like Bob from The Incredibles?

Charles did an excellent job as usual coordinating our visit to one of the Indian Health Services sites. This time we went to Perkins for a couple of day. We'll be working together at quite a few sites in 2009. He really will be a superhero to folks who have limited access to dental care!

Volunteer Coordinator Kristin Vineyard is off to a good start. We're glad to have her!

Kristin is coordinating the partnership between the Mobile Dental Van, the ODA's Adopt-A-Dentist program, and Schools For Healthy Lifestyles. Literally hundreds of children will receive care thanks to this program. Kudos to everyone involved. Kristin can be reached at kvineyard@okdf.org if you have any volunteering questions.

Atoka and Coalgate - Yeah!

We had two successful days in Atoka and Coalgate recently. Thanks to these volunteers, we got a lot of work done at both sites!!!

Kyle McNatt DDS
Terie Chapman
Chasity Carper DDS
Penny Pannell RDH
Tracy Bates
Brian Coerver DDS
D'Nay Rowsey RDH
Kelly Short

Camera Shy

We're working on a volunteer recruiting video, so recently we had a field day, got out of the office, and did some filming. New volunteer coordinator, Kristin Vineyard, acted as producer while Jonathan Meisner did the creative work, filming and directing. I'm excited to see the final product!

What's so funny?

Not sure what dental assistant extraordinaire Steve Fowler is laughing at. Maybe that funny smell, or the fact that volunteer coordinator Kristin Vineyard was initiated by hitting her head twice on the pano while we were at Grace Rescue Mission. Or maybe he just was happy we were getting Jersey Mike's Subs for lunch. Steve's always in a good mood! AEGD dentists Adam Lukens and Halee Lesch got their first experience on the dental van also. They seemed to enjoy the day. They did an outstanding job with 15 patients showing few signs of regular dental care. Assistant Bobbie Pruitt (not pictured) was her usual efficient self. Always a pleasure!

ODF staff member Andy Ekdahl is off with the van to Atoka this afternoon. Hopefully the weather will hold out until he gets back. With incoming Hurricane Ike, it's hard to say how much rain southeast Oklahoma will get.

F.U.N. with A.E.G.D.

We were at The ROC (Reaching Our City) in Oklahoma City Tuesday with two of the new residents from the Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) program at the OU College of Dentistry. Dr. Wendy Holder and Dr. Matt Cole were the brave dentists who got the year started off right.