KidHampton Report: Operation Smile Launches Adorable Teddy Bear Campaign.

Lisa Lori a publicist with clients in NYC & the Hamptons has teamed up with Operation Smile and childhood friend and handbag designer Kathy Van Zeeland on an exclusive giving campaign. KDHamptons visits the Hamptons office to get the scoop and see these cuddly bears.…

The lifelong friends partnered with Operation Smile this holiday season to launch the “Zachary, Luke or Griffin” Teddy Bears, found exclusively on Operation Smile’s Facebook Giving Catalog at www.operationsmile.org/fbcatalog and through Operation Smile’s Web site at www.operationsmile.org/bears. These special bears are named after Lisa Lori’s three sons, all who were born with facial paralysis. After enduring years of surgeries to give her own children their smiles, Lisa partnered with Kathy to design the commemorative bears so they could bring comfort to children worldwide who are suffering from facial deformities. The two friends hope the bears will inspire people to give a smile and to emphasize just how vital these surgeries are to a child’s life.

On Facebook or Operation Smile’s Web site, those who donate $240 to help provide a life-changing surgery will be giving a bear to a suffering child, AND will receive one of the commemorative bears for their very own. The bears they give will be sent on Operation Smile medical missions in impoverished countries to be delivered to children suffering from cleft lips and cleft palates. Teddy bears, long known to be a symbol of comfort and love to children, were the perfect choice to show the courage of Zachary, Luke and Griffin and enable the two friends to support Operation Smile’s work. With the help of dedicated medical volunteers and generous supporters, Operation Smile provides free reconstructive surgery for children worldwide who suffer from facial deformities, healing their smiles and giving them hope.

To learn more about Zachary, Luke and Griffin and the bears, please visit www.operationsmile.org/bears to learn more about how having a smile changed their lives. Kathy Van Zeeland and her husband Bruce Makowsky have underwritten 100 percent of the costs for production of the bears.

Every three minutes, a child is born with a cleft. One in 10 will die before their first birthday. Those who survive are often unable to eat, speak, socialize or smile. Many times, they are shunned from their own community.

About Operation Smile (www.operationsmile.org)
Operation Smile, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, is an international children’s medical charity with a presence in more than 60 countries, whose network of more than 5,000 medical volunteers from 76 countries is dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children. Since its founding in 1982, Operation Smile has provided more than 2 million patient evaluations and conducted over 200,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities, as well as patients suffering from burns. To build long-term self-sufficiency in developing countries, Operation Smile donates medical equipment, provides year-round medical treatment through Comprehensive Care Centers, and trains local medical professionals in its partner countries so they are empowered to treat their own local communities.