Friday, March 28, 2025
The Cradle of Aviation, in Uniondale, hosted over 1,700 students and dental care providers for this year’s Give Kids A Smile Day on Feb. 7, making it the largest dental care event in the county’s history.
The Nassau County Dental Society, a nonprofit representing over 1,400 local dentists, has celebrated GKAS Day for 22 years. The program offers dental care to children from underserved communities free of charge. It attracted over 300 volunteer care providers who conducted dental screenings, and fluoride varnish and sealant treatments.
“I am proud of what our Society has built this event into and the impact it makes on the children in our community,” Eugene Porcelli, executive director of the NCDS, said in a release.
Over the years, this program has helped over 20,000 children in Nassau County between ages 5 and 8 receive care that would have cost $1.8 million if done through conventional means. The event is part of National Children’s Dental Health Month, taking place throughout February.
This year’s event offered new and improved dental educational tools, including a movie using the museum’s theater and a puppet show, which taught children about good oral hygiene and self care.
The American Dental Association’s Give Kids A Smile program launched in 2003, as a way for dentists across the country to work together to provide dental services to those in need. According to the association, over 350,000 children receive care at more than 1,500 events every year, made possible by the efforts of 40,000 volunteers.
Joseph Brofsky has been co-chair of the Give Kids a Smile program for 15 years, and is the section head of the Pediatric Dentistry section at Northwell Health, one of the sponsors of the event.
“It’s important that parents take their children to a dentist,” Brofsky said. “The number one reason children miss school is because of dental problems. Kids miss school a lot because they have pain in their teeth and they can’t go to class, so it’s important that, at a young age, we fix their teeth.”
The children were selected from schools where a large number of students are enrolled in free lunch programs, which indicates they may also benefit from free dental care, Brofsky explained.
“It’s a great community effort — the dental students, the high school students, the dentists, everybody has a good time helping the kids,” he said.
One of the organizations that sponsored the event is the Henry Schein Cares Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the dental and medical supply distributor.
“It’s an event that we partake in every year because we feel the need to help give back to the communities that we all live in and serve,” Harris Lieberman, the regional general manager of the foundation’s Long Island division, said.
The foundation focuses on benefiting children from underserved communities, making sure that they have access to quality medical care from a young age.
“We not only help with volunteers for setup on the day of the event, but we also do work with some of our manufacturer partners and key supplier partners in order to help sponsor much of the materials used in the care of the children,” Lieberman said.
In addition to dental care, the program offers other medical services. The Long Beach Lions Club, a local division of the worldwide service organization, provided eye-screening exams. Among the volunteers were nutritional specialists from Northwell Health, who explained which foods are the best for children to eat to maintain the health of their teeth.
Andy Parton, president of the Cradle of Aviation, said that hosting these community events is one of the museum’s vital functions.
“The Cradle of Aviation Museum has been honored to serve as the host site for Give Kids A Smile for many years,” Parton said. “This program provides an invaluable service to children in our community, and we are proud to support an initiative that makes such a meaningful impact. Seeing so many kids receive the care they need in a welcoming environment is truly rewarding.”
