In Case You Missed it...

Conference 2012! 

This year at the Alliance of the American Dental Association’s Annual Conference we spent an amazing weekend in Stone Mountain, GA renewing friendships, learning and giving back to the community.

Thursday April, 12^th almost 50 Alliance members gathered to organize and package hundreds of donations they received for their second largest “Head to Toe” initiative. We care about you from Head to Toe was created in 2011 where the Alliance collected almost 2500 care kits including toothbrushes, tooth paste, a pair of socks and a hat to benefit locals in need. The first ever Head to Toe packaging event took place in 2011 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV as the ADA held their Annual Convention. In April of 2012 we decided to take on this project once again at the Annual Alliance Conference. Alliance members packaged a total of 360 kits to be donated to Senior Connections and the International Women’s House in Atlanta, GA. In addition to the kits we were able to donate 21 hats, 840 toothbrushes and 406 tubes of toothpaste. 

Gathered in a suite Sylvia Greer, Kristie Peppy and Mary Percy used every inch of space including the floor to put together the dental kits!

The Foundation for Dental Health Education held a silent auction, members of the Alliance both donated items and bid on them in support of future Dental Health for kids! The Foundation auctioned off 75 items and raised an astounding $3,972 in about an hour.

Thank you to everyone that donated and purchased at this event, your generosity helps make programs like Head to Toe and Give Kids aSmile a reality.

In addition to the community projects dentists were offered a CE course “New Advances in Oral Pathology” with Dr. Dwight “Ronnie” Weathers, DDS, MSD. Twenty one dentists were able to attend and receive 4 hours of CE credit. A member commented, "My husband LOVED his CE course!".

Alliance members really know how to have a good time! Not only did we enjoy ourselves while packaging dental kits and setting up the silent auction, we were danced to the Drum Cafe, visited the Carlos Museum and took a tour through some beautiful southern homes. 

For photos of all of these events and more please visit our Facebook page. This being my first conference, and first few months with the Alliance, I enjoyed meeting some wonderful people and learning more about dental industry. I hope to see everyone again at Convention this year October 19 -20 and again next year at conference.

A special thanks to Debbie Torbush and all the others that helped make this conference possible!