WHAT IS OPERATION SMILE SHAMROCK FINAL

MILE?

The Operation Smile Shamrock Final Mile is designed to teach kids the importance of

exercise, commitment and giving back in their community. Through Operation Smile

they also learn the value of giving to others. Students ages 5 to 12 can participate and

it’s easy!

Students run 25.2 miles before race day, just a few miles a week! For each mile they

run, they can collect a small pledge and reach the $240 that it takes to change a child’s

life!

Then students come together to run their “Final Mile” to complete a marathon at the

Virginia Beach Oceanfront on Saturday, March 19, 2016 as a part of the Shamrock

Marathon Weekend.

Students can log miles in PE class, a running club, or with friends and family after

school. So come on, have your students run for a great cause, get fit, and help

someone else along the way!

WHY IS THE OPERATION SMILE FINAL MILE

IMPORTANT?

Getting fit and staying healthy are important for the mind and body, promoting self-

esteem and enhanced learning in school!

Not only do students help themselves stay fit, but they also help others too. Not every

boy or girl is able to go to school, sometimes kids with cleft lips and cleft palates are

bullied and made fun of –making the thought of going to school very scary.

Students are helping a child with a cleft by donating money to Operation Smile! The

money raised will help provide surgery to a child –giving them a chance to smile.

It takes as little as $240 and as few as 45 minutes to change a child’s life forever.

WHY DO STUDENTS WANT TO RUN? THEY RUN TO…

Have Fun!

Stay Healthy!

Heal Smiles!

STEPS FOR SCHOOL PARTICIPATION

STEP 1: CREATE A SCHOOL GOAL

Create a school goal by determining the number of participations you wish to have

and the amount of money you would like to raise for your school! It only takes

$240.00 to change one child’s life.

STEP 2: FUNDRAISE FOR OPERATION SMILE

Use the SmileTracker: Our SmileTracker is a fun and easy way for students to raise

money to change one smile! The SmileTracker includes a donation log and a sleeve to

collect pledges. The best part is that it makes asking for donations fun! For each mile

your students run, there’s a shamrock for them to scratch-off. They can ask a neighbor,

family member or friend to sponsor a mile and then scratch off a shamrock.

Underneath, the sponsor will find a donation amount of $1, $5, $10, $15 or $20 to

help them reach the students goal of healing one smile! To request SmileTrackers

please email the quantity you wish to receive along with your school’s name to

finalmile@operationsmile.org.

Donate Online: Friends and family that prefer to make an online donation can do so

through the school’s team page and/or a student’s individual team page. See Step 3

for more information about how to request a team page. The team page link is easy to

share via email and social media.

Hold a School Fundraiser: Your school can hold a fundraiser to work together to meet

your goal. We’ve got student-approved fundraising ideas later in this toolkit to help

you get started! Even if students aren’t running they can help change a child’s life by

fundraising for your school’s final mile team!

STEP 3: CREATE A SCHOOL TEAM PAGE ONLINE

Create your school’s team page to promote online donations.

To request a team page for your school, please visit www.operationsmile.org/finalmile.

Select “Register” and fill out the information to “Request a School Team”. You can

personalize your page to include your efforts to support Operation Smile. Don’t forget

to include your fundraising goal!

Once a school team page has been created you will receive an email letting you know

the school team page is ready to use!

Teachers, parents and students can then track their school’s fundraising progress

through the thermometer on their school’s team page!

Please share your school’s team page link through email and social media in support

of your students and school goal.

STEP 4: PROMOTE THE FINAL MILE TO YOUR

SCHOOL

Involve all of your students, educators and administration to be a part of Operation

Smile Final Mile and have your students who participate spread awareness about

Operation Smile!

Promote the Operation Smile Final Mile by:

Hanging up posters

Running miles in P.E. class

Making morning announcements

Participating in the Silly Shamrock Competition

Create a fundraising rivalry with another school

Hand out buttons or stickers

Don’t forget to share your school’s goals and online team fundraising page with your

students!

STEP 5: ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO REGISTER

FOR THE RACE

In order for students to be eligible for running in the final mile at the Shamrock

Marathon, parents must register their children through the 2016 Shamrock Marathon

website: http://www.shamrockmarathon.com/. This will include the race fee of

$20.00 to J&A Racing. Remember the fee goes up closer to race day!

STEP 6: GET READY FOR THE RACE!

Have your students run 25.2 miles before race day, by running just a few miles a week.

Your students can log miles in PE class, running club, or with friends and family after

school!

STEP 7: SIGN YOUR SCHOOL UP FOR THE FINAL

MILE CELEBRATION

In honor of the 10th Operation Smile Shamrock Final Mile, we will be hosting a Final

Mile Celebration on Friday, March 18, 2016 from 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. to celebrate

your school’s participation and support of Operation Smile. This is a field trip

opportunity for you and your students. We will also be holding the Silly Shamrock

Competition at this event. RSVP for your school by emailing

finalmile@operationsmile.org. Space is limited!

STEP 8: SUBMIT DONATIONS

Have your students use the SmileTracker to collect their check and cash donations.

We want to give receipts to all donors properly for their donation to Operation Smile.

To facilitate this, we ask that you help us by emphasizing to students to carefully track

donor’s information in the SmileTracker.

Please encourage students to return their SmileTracker and donations to the Final Mile

Coordinator (this could be you!) three days prior to the Final Mile.

We will be announcing the top 2016 Final Mile fundraisers at the Final Mile Celebration

this year. For your schools fundraising efforts to be included please turn in all

donations at least two days prior to the Final Mile Celebration. You can return them to

the Operation Smile Headquarters at Operation Smile, 3641 Faculty Blvd. Virginia

Beach, VA 2345.

If you and your students can’t make it to the Final Mile Celebration please return the

SmileTrackers to the Operation Smile table at the Shamrock Sports and Fitness Expo

the day prior to the event.

STEP 9: FINAL MILE RACE!

On March 19, 2016 students will run their "Final Mile" to complete a marathon at the

Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Your school team can run together!

Last year we had over 5,000 elementary school participants. We are anticipating even

more this year!

STEP 10: KEEP YOUR STUDENTS INVOLVED!

There are many ways for students to get involved with Operation Smile in addition to

just fundraising.

Service projects, holding a toy drive and making get well soon cards are to name a few!

Please see later in the toolkit for additional service project ideas.

We also host World Tour Conferences where students are able to spend a field trip at

our Virginia Beach Headquarters and visit different countries through presentations

put on by Operation Smile Staff and Volunteers.

Student Programs representatives are also available to your school to talk about

Operation Smile and to motivate students.

For more information about student involvement you can visit our website at

www.operationsmile.org/studentprograms

SILLY SHAMROCK COMPETITION AND FINAL

MILE CELEBRATION

The Silly Shamrock Competition happens every year prior to the Operation Smile

Shamrock Final Mile race. Educators from different schools dress up in their best

Shamrock attire and compete against other schools in a costume competition on

stage. Any school who is interested is welcome to have a representative dress up!

This year, in Honor of the 10th Operation Smile Shamrock Final Mile, we will be

hosting a Final Mile Celebration on Friday, March 18, 2016 from 10:00 a.m.-1:00

p.m. This is a field trip opportunity for you and your students. We will be holding

the Silly Shamrock Competition during the celebration this year. For more

information or if you are interested in nominating a representative from your school

to participate in the Silly Shamrock competition, please join us in The Big Tent at

the Shamrock Finish Line by RSVPing your school at finalmile@operationsmile.org.

Space is limited!

FUNDRAISING IDEAS

Students can collect their fundraising pledges several different ways. Here are a

few ideas to get you and your students started:

Host a lemonade or hot chocolate stand: Set up a stand to sell lemonade, hot

chocolate or some other sort of drink at school or in a neighborhood!

Sell candy-grams at school: Create bags of candy where students can buy for

themselves, their peers or teachers at school. These candy-grams usually

have tags where students can write messages to the person they are sending

them to!

Host a pie your teacher in the face day: Place jars around the school with

names of different teachers who students would like to pie in the face.

Students can purchase tickets and write their name on the back of the ticket.

The teacher who gets the most tickets will be pied in the face. Draw a ticket

from that teacher’s jar-whichever student entered that ticket gets to pie the

teacher in the face!

Host a bake sale at your school: Parents, students and administration can

contribute baked goods for a one-day sale. Children and/or parents can be

invited in to buy these treats.

Host a dress down day at your school: Ask for a specific, small donation

amount for students and teachers to participate in a Dress Down Day where

they can wear jeans or other comfortable clothing not usually allowed at

school such as hats.

Host week long coin wars throughout different grade levels at your school:

Label a jar with each grade. Coins in the jar are worth positive points and bills

are worth negative points. Students put coins in their own grade’s jar and bills

in other grades. Grades will compete to see who wins the most points at the

end of the week!

Hold a raffle: Sell tickets for the chance to win a particular prize – this could

be a basket of goods, a 50/50 draw for cash, or another prize donated by the

community or school.

Participate in the Silly Shamrock Competition: Different teachers dress up as

a Silly Shamrock and the students will vote on the winner by donating money

into a jar for each teacher. The teacher with the most money wins and will

represent your school in a regional competition at the Final Mile Celebration’s

Silly Shamrock Competition!

Be creative and come up with your own ideas on how to receive pledges. Don’t

forget to share those ideas with us at finalmile@operationsmile.org so we can

share them with other students in the future.

SERVICE PROJECT IDEAS

In addition to fundraising students can also help Operation Smile by hosting a

service project.

Service projects include:

Writing “get well soon cards”

Smile bag item donation drive

Sewing Smile bags

Sewing Smile dolls

Making banners to hang in hospitals

Hosting a toy drive

Making friendship bracelets

For more information about service projects please visit

http://www.operationsmile.org/content/community-fundraising-and-service-

projects or email student.programs@operationsmile.org.

OPERATION SMILE FACTS

VISION

Operation Smile dreams of a world where no child suffers from lack of access to

safe surgery.

ABOUT OPERATION SMILE

Operation Smile is an international medical charity whose global network of

thousands of credentialed medical volunteers from more than 80 countries is

dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children from more than 60

countries. Since its founding in 1982, Operation Smile has provided more than

240,000 free surgical procedures for children and young adults born with cleft lip,

cleft palate and other facial deformities. To build long-term sufficiency in resource

poor environments, Operation Smile trains doctors and local medical

professionals in its partner countries so they are empowered to treat their local

communities and help others around the world. Operation Smile also donates

medical equipment and supplies and provides year-round medical treatments

through its worldwide centers.

URGENT NEED

It is estimated that two billion people, or one-quarter of the world’s population,

lack access to basic surgical care.

Every 3 minutes, a child is born somewhere in the world with a cleft lip or cleft

palate.

In many countries where we work, there are not enough trained medical

professionals to handle the growing need and backlog of cleft cases.

Lack of access to surgery is estimated to cause up to one-quarter of the death

and disability that exists in the world. This significant “burden of disease” is

rapidly growing and can be treated, alleviated or cured with surgery.

The facts are staggering: each year more people die because of lack of access

to surgical care than from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined.

Despite the significant volume of surgical procedures worldwide, lack of

access to surgery remains a serious problem for the world’s poor. While the

wealthiest one-third of the world’s population receive 75% of all surgical

procedures, the poorest one-third of the world’s population receive only 4%.

CLEFT LIP AND CLEFT PALATE

A cleft is a gap in the mouth that didn't close during the early stages of

pregnancy. It is estimated that, worldwide, a child is born every 3 minutes with

a cleft — about one in 750 births.

It takes as few as 45 minutes and as little as $240 to repair a cleft lip or cleft

palate.

HISTORY

Operation Smile was founded in 1982 by Dr. William (Bill) Magee Jr., a plastic

surgeon, and his wife, Kathleen (Kathy) Magee, a nurse and clinical social

worker.

Operation Smile was launched with its first mission to the Philippines in 1982.

OVERALL IMPACT TO DATE

Operation Smile is one of the largest surgical organizations in the world.

Operation Smile is the largest volunteer-based medical charity providing free

cleft surgeries.

Through our partnership with the American Heart Association we are one of

the largest providers of life saving courses (Basic Life Support - BLS, Pediatric

Advanced Life Support - PALS and Advanced Cardiac Life Support - ACLS) to

resource-poor environments.

Operation Smile is leading research into the causes of cleft lip and cleft

palate, and its prevention, treatment and surgical outcomes.

Operation Smile is a pioneer in advocating for the importance of safe surgery

in resource-poor environments where the lack of safe surgery accounts for

11% of all death and disability. We listen to our patients to understand what

prevents them from accessing care so we can break down those obstacles for

children and families who need surgery.

Operation Smile increases overall surgical capacity and cleft treatment in

communities where we work by providing health care workers with medical

equipment, supplies, education and training. We demonstrate industry-leading

clinical management practices through our Global Standards of Care, which

help ensure we provide the best quality of care for our patients around the

world.

Operation Smile has provided over 240,000 free surgeries to children with

cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities.

There are hundreds of registered Operation Smile Student Clubs worldwide –

with a network of more than 18,000 students – building awareness, raising

funds and educating others about core values of commitment, leadership and

volunteerism. Operation Smile Student Programs empowers youth, creating a

global movement for positive change through our four pillars of philanthropy:

Leadership, Education, Service, and Awareness.

ABOUT OPERATION SMILE’S GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS

Operation Smile’s Global Headquarters is located in Virginia Beach, Virginia,

and is equipped with industry leading technology to operate as an educational

hub connecting educators and trainees around the world.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Question: Can Operation Smile sponsor me?

Answer: No. Operation Smile cannot sponsor, solicit sponsorship or reimburse

expenses for fundraising events.

Question: How will the money be used?

Answer: A gift made through your fundraising efforts represents a gift to the entire

Operation Smile mission and will help to heal children’s smiles throughout

the globe.

Question: Do I need to give receipts to the donors who make donations?

Answer: Donors will be given receipts for by Operation Smile Headquarters if the

proper information is recorded. Please fill out the donation log in the

SmileTracker for donors to be given receipts.

Question: What should a donor do if they want to donate after the event?

Answer: If the event is over and you have already submitted funds to Operation

Smile, donors can send their checks to the Operation Smile Headquarters

(3641 Faculty Blvd. Virginia Beach, VA 23453). Your donor can also give

a gift by credit card by calling Operation Smile Headquarters at

757.321.7645 Monday-Friday, 8:30 A.M.-5:30 P.M. E.S.T. When

submitting either by check or by credit card, the donor should provide the

event name, Operation Smile Shamrock Final Mile and the student’s

name. We will be happy to accept their donation.

Question: If I collect checks or cash, who should I send it to?

Answer: You should turn all donations into Operation Smile two days prior to the

Final Mile Celebration or to the Operation Smile table at the Final Mile

Expo the day prior to the event. If you miss this deadline please send

checks to Student Programs at Operation Smile Headquarters. See

address above. Bundle donations together with the completed donation

logs in the SmileTrackers for us to track the donations.

Question: Can I keep the cash collected and forward a check from my own checking

account?

Answer: Yes, however names and addresses and the amount they gave in cash

must be entered on the donation log in the SmileTracker in order for them

to receive a receipt. Please note any additional amount that you are

including as your own donation so you can receive a receipt as well.

Since 2006, the Final Mile program has helped heal over 1,500 smiles –

that’s 1,500 brighter futures created, lives saved, and families transformed

forever! Have your students make a difference in the lives of children around the

world while having fun! Take the pledge and have your students do the same to

share the Operation Smile mission with friends and family.

TEACHER PLEDGE

Sign your name below to take the pledge!

I, ___________________, pledge to encourage my students to

run 25.2 miles between now and the Shamrock Marathon

Weekend on March 19, 2016. On race day my students will

cross the finish line to complete their Final Mile. Help my

students help others by pledging per mile!

My students are going the extra mile to help kids receive new

smiles! My students are collecting donations for Operation

Smile, any amount raised will help give new smiles for children

in need.

STUDENT PLEDGE

Have your students sign their names below to take the pledge!

I, ___________________, pledge to run 25.2 miles between

now and the Shamrock Marathon Weekend on March 19,

2016. On race day I’ll cross the finish line to complete my Final

Mile. Help me help other by pledging per mile!

I am going the extra mile to help kids receive new smiles! I am

collecting donations for Operation Smile, any amount raised

will help give new smiles for children in need.