Holiday ‘smiles’ to support Green Shirt Day campaign
Dental Corporation give free checkups, cleanings to benefit military families
Nearly 900 children of deployed service members got a reason to smile last year, thanks to "Holiday Smiles," a program offering free dental services to families of military personnel serving overseas during the holidays.
The program is a partnership between Coast Dental and Green Shirt Day, a national nonprofit organization founded in 2016 by four military moms in Virginia Beach. To date, Holiday Smiles has provided more than 1,500 free dental services to military families during the holiday season.
This year's event will be held on Saturday, December 16, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at all Coast Dental locations. Families of active-duty service members who are deployed overseas during the holidays are eligible to receive free dental checkups, cleanings, fillings, and extractions.
How to participate
To participate in Holiday Smiles, families must preregister with Green Shirt Day online. Walk-ins will not be accepted.
On the day of the event, families should bring their military ID and their child's birth certificate or other proof of age.
Green Shirt Day
Green Shirt Day was founded in 2016 by four military moms who wanted to find a way to support the families of deployed service members during the holidays.
The organization's signature event is Green Shirt Day, which is held annually on the third Friday of September. On this day, people are encouraged to wear green shirts to show their support for military families.
In addition to Holiday Smiles, Green Shirt Day also provides other programs and services to support military families, including:
- Operation Kid Comfort, which provides comfort items to children of deployed service members
- Operation Letters From Home, which collects and delivers letters from the community to deployed service members
- Operation Honor and Remember, which provides support to families of fallen service members
To learn more about Green Shirt Day and its programs, visit www.greenshirtday.org.
