LHS Students Hope to Spread Smiles with Benefit Dinner

A club is looking to put smiles on faces here and abroad with an upcoming fundraising dinner and auction.

The Operation Smile Club is hosting a benefit dinner on Friday, March 30, to raise money and awareness about the organization that provides free correctional surgeries for children with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities.

Scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. at , the dinner is “probably the biggest event of the year,” for the club, according to Sarah Garberg, a sophomore at LHS and two-year club member. There will be catering from and auction items including Bruins tickets, salon gift cards and gift cards to local restaurants and shops.

While the Operation Smile club is student-run, this dinner is geared toward adults and all proceeds from the $20 tickets will go toward the organization as parents have stepped up to help cover the cost of catering and with auction items, Garberg said.

“Literally all of the proceeds are going to the organization,” she said. “Doing something as fundamental as fixing a smile, in 45 minutes, for $240, that one surgery can change the life of that child, that family, and that community.”

According to Garberg, the Operation Smile club at LHS meets weekly and discusses ways to raise money for the organization. Some members of the Operation Smile , where they meet children and play with them while they’re screened for surgeries.

“I have done a lot of work with the organization over the past year, and seeing all of these videos from kids who have gone on missions and how much it means to the kids and families, it has moved me in a way that I can’t explain,” said Garberg. “It sounds cosmetic, but these kids with cleft palates, they have trouble eating, they have trouble breathing, they get sick easily and they have problems being accepted in their communities. We can do so much to change their lives.”

What: LHS Operation Smile Club Benefit Dinner
When: 6 to 9 p.m., Friday, March 30
Where: 177 Bedford St, Lexington
How: Tickets are $20. To purchase tickets or find more information, email operationsmile.lhs@gmail.com