James Long, DDS

From the Desk of the Foundation President

Dear Fellows:

This year, 2010, has been a very good one for your Foundation. The contract between the Foundation and the Academy was finalized earlier this year. Dr. Steve Hedlund, President of the Academy, was very helpful in negotiating the contract. Although the Academy and the Foundation are separate entities, cooperation between the two groups could not have been better!

Our fund-raising efforts were successful this year THANKS to all of you who have contributed to the Foundation. Whatever you contributed helps us to fund another grant. Speaking of grants, if you followed the news in the paper a few weeks ago, you will remember seeing a picture of a dentist, Dr. Thomas Grams, who was killed in Afghanistan by the Taliban. This colleague, from Colorado, bequeathed the Foundation $50,000. We funded a couple of his grant requests in the past few years. These projects were in remote areas of our world. You cannot imagine our feelings when we learned of this gift. His will was made a few weeks before his death. I felt tremendous sorrow for his parents and his brother for their loss but astonished by his generosity, which will enable us to carry on his work in remote areas of the world. Fellows, his sacrifice and his work helping other people is what it is all about. A thank you note to his parents was very hard for me to write.

Dr. Gary Lowder and our Executive Director, Laura Fleming Doyle, have worked very hard to simplify our grant application process by implementing an electronic application. This will put our grant evaluators on a more uniform basis of critique. Forty-seven grant requests have been submitted this year. Eighty-nine third-year dental students received $1500 scholarship checks. Thirty-one of these checks were sent outside of the United States to Australia, France, Japan, Chili, Germany, Spain, Paraguay, Italy, Mexico, and the Netherlands. Your Foundation, as part of our fund-raising efforts, has instituted a Legacy program. We hope many of you will remember the Foundation in your wills, as did Dr. Grams.

This coming year will be a new adventure for the Foundation as we begin to reach out to other individuals and corporations in our quest for more grant funding resources. In the next issue of Dental World, we will fill you in on what transpired at our Annual Meeting in Orlando and what course the Foundation will pursue in 2011.

Dr. Jim Long
President of the Foundation of the Pierre Fauchard Academy

From the Desk of the Foundation Executive Director

FOUNDATION 2010 FUND-RAISING REPORT

Annual Spring Fund-Raising Appeal

Laura Fleming Doyle

More than 5000 letters went out to all U.S. PFA Fellows in early May requesting donations to support the Foundation's scholarship and grants program. To date, we have received $38,896 in total donations from 321 individual donors. The majority of the donations have been for the minimum donation request of $100. In 2009, we received $47,236 from 530 donors. It is noteworthy that many of the 2010 donors did not give in 2009 and those who did give in 2009 tended to increase the amount they donated in 2010.

You can go to http://www.fauchard.org/foundation/contributions.php to see the most current list of donors for 2010.

Fall Fund-Raising Appeal

The fall fund-raising letter will go out to all U.S. PFA Fellows and PFA Life Fellows in early November. A Foundation return envelope will be included, just as in the Spring Appeal. If you have not given in 2010, please consider doing so. It is your generous donations that enable the Foundation to continue to support the Foundation's dental student scholarships and charitable dental projects worldwide through our grants program.

Legacy Program

We were both honored and saddened this year to learn that one of our grant recipients had done just that--supported the Foundation's dental student scholarships and charitable dental projects worldwide through our grants program. Dr. Thomas Grams from Durango, Colorado, was on a health care mission providing dental care to school children in Afghanistan when he was killed by the Taliban. The Foundation had funded projects initiated by Dr. Grams in the past and currently has an active grant application from Dr. Grams requesting funding for continued work in Afghanistan. Shortly after his death, we received notification that Dr. Grams had, in fact, left a sizable bequest to the Foundation. He had made his will out three weeks before his death (see the article about Dr. Grams in this issue).

The Foundation hopes that each of you will consider participating in the Foundation's Legacy Program. This program is designed to allow individuals to leave a donation to the Foundation in their will. Contact Laura Fleming Doyle, Executive Director, for more information about how you can participate in the Foundation's Legacy Program.

Corporate Donor Program

The Board of Trustees voted to approve the kick off of a Corporate Donor Program. The Trustees agreed that it is important to give the major dental manufacturers the opportunity to participate in the Foundation's charitable grants and scholarships programs. More details regarding this new program will be presented in upcoming issues of Dental World.

Laura Fleming Doyle
Executive Director, Foundation of the Pierre Fauchard Academy

Dr. Thomas Grams

Colorado Dentist Killed in Afghanistan Bequeathed $50,000 to the Foundation of the Pierre Fauchard Academy

A 51-year-old Colorado dentist, Dr. Thomas Grams, was among 10 members of a medical team recently gunned down in Afghanistan. Dr. Grams was killed August 5, 2010, along with five other Americans on a medical trip. Dr. Grams retired from his dental practice in 2007 and started his volunteer work in Afghanistan with $10,000 of his own money and a $10,000 grant from the Foundation of the Pierre Fauchard Academy. These funds were used to purchase equipment and supplies and provide for rental expenses, repairs, and salaries to establish the Afghan Relief Organization (ARO) Dental Clinic.

The ARO Dental Clinic, which has now been operating for 3 years, provides free dental care to students and the surrounding population. The cost of quality dental care is beyond the means of the vast majority of Afghans. The ARO Dental Clinic was established to help alleviate this problem through the additional training and permanent employment of an Afghan dentist, Dr. Fatima. She was hired in April 2007 and received additional training from Dr. Grams then and again in 2008. He returned this summer to give her additional training.

For the most part the students have had their fillings and cleanings completed. Dr. Fatima visits schools within walking distance to inform the school administrators of the available free dental care for their students. Optimally six or eight students will be excused from that school daily to go to the clinic to receive needed care. Once the students wanting care have had their treatments completed, Dr. Fatima then approaches another nearby school for more students.

Thursdays are left as "open days," when anyone from the surrounding area can receive care. Other days of the week students from designated schools receive priority. In 2009, as a result of the relief effort established by Dr. Grams, the procedures completed included 459 prophys, 363 extractions, 428 one-surface amalgams, 374 two-surface amalgams, 285 three-surface amalgams, 445 four-surface amalgams, 93 one-surface composites, 66 two-surface composites, 26 three-surface composites, and 18 four-surface composites.

Just weeks prior to his death, Dr. Grams submitted an application requesting an additional $5,000 from the Foundation for the Afghan Relief Organization Dental Clinic. Dr. Grams stated in his application that "This is an ongoing project that we plan to continue indefinitely." At the same time, he also drafted his will. Dr. Grams generously left a bequest to the Foundation of the Pierre Fauchard Academy in the amount of $50,000. This was a kind and generous gesture by Dr. Grams. It is this kind bequest that will allow Dr. Grams' passion for providing care to others who are less fortunate to continue even after his tragic death.

Student Patrice Jones in Peru doing dental work in the field

Patrice Jones receiving Scholarship certificate

Dental Mission Work in the Field: A Letter to the Foundation from Student Scholarship Recipient

September 23, 2010

Dear Dr. Long and the Foundation of the Pierre Fauchard Academy,

Thank you so very much for the generous scholarship you awarded me this past spring. I feel extremely honored to be recognized by such a prestigious and esteemed group as yours, and I cannot say thank you enough for your generous award. With your gift, I was able to do dental mission work in Trujillo, Peru, this past summer. While there, five fellow students and I not only were able to provide numerous extractions, restorations, and fluoride treatment to a population with very limited access to dental health care, but we also had the wonderful experience of learning everything from exodontia techniques to sterilization in primitive conditions from two incredible and very experienced mission field dentists. Being immersed in the mission field and being able to connect with a group of people so seemingly different than myself yet so similar in heart sparked a desire in me to find ways to continue international missions throughout my career. Your generous giving is a wonderful example for me to follow throughout my future career in dentistry, and I so very much appreciate the Foundation of the Pierre Fauchard Academy for giving me this opportunity to step into the world of dental missions. I look forward to many more trips to come.

Patrice Jones
University of Mississippi School of Dentistry
Class of 2011

The PFA Foundation needs your support. Donate now online!

If you would like to help the Foundation fund grants for good causes and scholarships for good students, please send a check to the address listed below or donate online with your credit card. The Foundation of the Pierre Fauchard Foundation is a tax-exempt 501(c)3 Private Foundation. All contributions are tax deductible in the United States as allowed by law.

Foundation of the Pierre Fauchard Academy
1510 Judd Ct
Herndon VA 20170
Phone: 703-597-8847

Online donations: www.fauchard.org/foundation/donate.html