ADA Foundation awards 425th Harris Grant
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Posted Jan. 21, 2009 |
Preventing childhood caries is what the ADA Foundation's Dr. Samuel Harris Fund For Children's Dental Health Fund is all about.
 The Harris Fund is a permanent endowment fund which the ADA Foundation launched in 1999 to improve the oral health of low-income children. It supports programs that improve and maintain children's oral health through education and community outreach and whose economic status places them at the greatest risk for dental caries and other oral diseases. Each year, the Foundation awards competitive grants up to $5,000 per organization for such programs.
The fund is sustained by individual donations and has in the past received generous corporate donations to match a challenge from Dr. Samuel Harris. In 2008, the fund awarded cash grants totaling $322,095 to 70 such programs and in 10 years, the Foundation has awarded 425 grants for an impressive total of $1.9 million.
"It means a lot to us," said Tammy McGinnis, Health Services Manager for the KnoHoCo Ashland Head Start in Glenmont, Ohio. "We appreciate it so much and our parents appreciate it so much. The more good oral health care the children can be exposed to, the better."
Ms. McGinnis estimated some 90 percent of her HeadStart families live below the poverty line and said the grant pays for toothbrushes and educational materials. Beginning in February, the Foundation will begin accepting Harris Fund grant proposals for 2009 that request up to $5,000 from community-based, not-for-profit organizations in the United States or its territories.
Dr. Harris was a pediatric dentist born in the Ukraine, who practiced in Detroit and believed a dentist's main responsibility was "to educate, to teach people, especially children, something important about themselves. That way they live not only longer, but better, healthier lives."
For more information, or to support the Harris Fund with your donation, call the toll-free, Ext. 2547. To learn more about the ADA Foundation or its programs, visit www.adafoundation.org.
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