Tom, Greg and Bob making the burrito packets.
Waukesha Sunrise Rotary Club recently completed the “Healthy Teeth for Tots & Teens” project, a volunteer program funded through a $3000 grant approved by Rotary District 6270. The monetary portion of the grant covered material costs for 300 of the 10,000 disposable PPE dental supply packets, aka "burritos", utilized annually for children of low-income families in the Waukesha community served by Community Smiles Dental. The burrito packets each contain 9 PPE materials critical to serving patient needs during their visit, including a chair cover, toothbrush attachment, dental floss, toothpaste and other necessities.
Rotary volunteers from the club then worked 150 hours on site at the Waukesha facility with a goal of assembling 3,600 burritos for Community Smiles Dental’s pediatric patients during the project’s 6-month timeframe, from September to February. But the volunteers actually assembled about 5000 PPE burrito packets. Now there will be 5000 disadvantaged children, roughly half of Community Smiles’ annual total, served by those same burrito packets assembled by the team of Rotary volunteers
Waukesha Sunrise Rotary Club worked closely with Renee Ramirez, CEO, and Carly Fortier, Administrative Manager at the clinic to develop a procedural plan for the project and maintain close communication throughout. The Rotary club’s volunteers did their burrito-building during agreed-upon times, working 2-hour shifts, twice daily on Mondays and Thursdays, at Community Smiles Dental’s Waukesha facility. But they’d be the first to admit that without the gracious and supportive efforts of Community Smiles’ staff, keeping them regularly supplied with all 9 essential “burrito parts”, their volunteer efforts wouldn’t have been nearly as successful. It was the collaborative approach that really made this project work.
