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A New Beginning for Kelly Kelly and her parents embarked on a long, arduous journey, traveling hundreds of miles across Mexico to their destination: Mexico City. It was 2023, and they were headed to a Smile Network surgical campaign site in hopes that Kelly would be eligible for a life-changing transformative surgery to repair her […]

Baby Constanza Meet this beautiful 9-month-old baby, Constanza. Born in the community of Chihuahua to parents who couldn’t afford her medical needs, her village rallied together when they heard about the opportunity for Constanza to be evaluated for surgery by the Smile Network team at Ribera Medical Center. To fund the 19-hour trip to Ajijic, […]

Jezus Jezus is one of the 27 children who received the gift of surgery during the Smile Network’s mission in Ajijic, Mexico, thanks to the team of medical professionals, generous donors, and the staff at Ribera Medical Center. Every child is special, but meeting a child like Jezus tugs at your heartstrings in a profound […]

The Journey Begins We are 19 adventurous souls traveling together ranging in age from 17 to 62.  We come from many walks of life, from rural towns and big cities. Some of us are doing this adventure as solo travelers, we have a mother and daughter combination, three married couples and multiple small friend groups. What we all share is a […]

Inca Trail Trek Spring 2019 Great accomplishments generally have their roots in humble beginnings. Today nineteen adventurous individuals from Minnesota, Georgia and Washington State embarked on a trip of a lifetime.  They are in route to the Andes mountains to either hike the famed Inca Trail or to scale a mountain cliff in the Sacred Valley […]

We are 60 kilometers into our trek. Every morning we are up before the sun to beat the heat of the day as we set out on another 20 Kilometer hike. Spirits are high as we complete the third day. We are half way to our destination. Over the course of the next six days […]

Greetings from Pontevedra Spain and the 2018 Portuguese Camino trek to benefit Smile Network! Thank you to all the participants and the donors 30 children will receive life-altering surgeries as a result of the participation of the trekkers and the donors that generously supported their efforts.

We were greeted by a glorious Portuguese sunrise this morning as we began our journey on the Camino. We hiked over 15 kilometers today under partially sunny skies. Thunder and lightning threatened us all day but we stayed ahead of the storm as we walked through the castle towns of Valença, Portugal and Tui, Spain. We completed […]

  We total Ten. Nine outgoing and fast-talking women, and one brave man. We range in age from 47 to 66. We come from Minnesota, Wyoming, Washington and South Carolina. Within the first 24 hours of our arrival into Europe we lost one passport, a brand new Iphone 10, one suitcase, and a pair of […]

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Our campsite day three. All have arrived to the destination safely.