This past Tuesday, I attended the annual meeting for the Forum Association of Chicagoland. Forum is an association for association professionals (yes, we have one too!). Five ASDA staffers attended the meeting. The keynote speaker was a former Marine named Rye Barcott. He started a non-profit organization for people in Kibera, a Kenyan slum. Barcott spoke about leadership and empowering people with the resources they need to help themselves. The slogan of his organization is “talent is universal, opportunity is not.”
The keynote made me think about my own involvement with an organization that does work in Africa–World Vision. I ran on team World Vision last fall during the Chicago Marathon. I’ve signed up with them again this year and I’d like to have even more involvement with the organization. I really believe in the cause (delivering clean drinking water to impoverished areas of Africa and the sponsorship of children). But it struck me that sometimes a cause isn’t enough to feel useful. It wasn’t until my philanthropy met my love of running that I felt I was doing something. I can’t take a few months off from work and family to travel to an African slum to make an impact. Most of us can’t. But I can take something that I am already passionate about and deepen its meaning by adding a layer of philanthropy to it. That’s really powerful.
This is exactly how I see the countless dental school outreach trips that happen each year. You’re already passionate about oral health and when you use your passion and skill set to help the underserved, it adds infinite meaning to your profession. Everyone has a cause and everyone has a profession, it’s commendable when you can marry the two and maximize the impact of your work. The summer issue of Mouth is about dentistry around the world. If you’re looking to take up a cause, be sure to check out the section of dental outreach photos. Mouth will hit mailboxes mid July.
What’s your cause? Is it children? The people of Central America? Elderly care? Let us know in the comments section below.
~Kim Schneider, Communications Editor
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