Sonrisas Siempre was started in 2009 by Dr. Tom Blake and Dr. Steve Ellinwood. They came together as a team after spending many years exploring the dental mission field separately. They had become friends many years earlier and decided that together they could have a larger impact.
A Note from Tom and Steve,
We provide dental care for the less fortunate in underdeveloped countries to improve the health and well-being of these individuals. This includes dental care and education, as well as suppling needed dental care items. Currently, we are focusing mostly on children to have a positive impact in their lives.
We are proud to have been able to help establish a dental clinic in Comayagua, Honduras with our Honduran Lions Club partners and have taken teams of 28 to 32 members four times to this clinic. We continue to plan future annual trips.
For us this has become the fulfillment of a dream that we had many years ago. We were excited to take our first trip and have been fortunate to watch the mission grow successful. We both have had mission experience so we knew that there is always going to be struggles. Our first team was excellent group of people and continues to be so as we grow and change over time. We have been blessed with great people to work and partner with. The experience is to improve the dental health of the people of Comayagua and Honduras as a whole. We also wish to enrich the lives of those we come in contact with. Sonrisas Siempre has had a positive effect on the Comayagua community and we hope to do so into the future. Steve’s father told him a long time ago that nobody returns from a mission trip the same person. We truly believe this is so. The change is little or very profound, but it always for the better. We hope to continue to changes live and improve the oral health long into the future.
