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BDH students Francia Perara (left) and Chelsea Weinkauf

Once upon a time, when the North Preston Dental Clinic first opened 20 years ago, the students at the school held a penny drive and raised enough money to buy TVs for the two clinic rooms. The children at the school were able to watch TV while they received oral health care and everyone was happy about that.


Time took its toll, however. Many years later, the local cable company no longer provided free cable to the school and the TVs were too old to work any other way. 



As in all the best fairy tales, a fairy godmother – in this case, two of them – waved a magic wand.  Francia Perara and Chelsea Weinkauf, two BDH students who clean teeth in the clinic on Tuesday afternoons, noticed how disappointed the children were when they discovered that the TVs could not be turned on. 


Chelsea and Francia wanted to help, so they held a bake sale at the Faculty of Dentistry, successfully raising over $400 dollars. 


Their kind actions inspired DDS3 student Kashish Kohli to make the kind offer to purchase two TVs and ceiling mounts. The TVs were installed using the money Chelsea and Francia raised.  And that’s not all. Clinical Services manager Audra Hayden worked with Dal to obtain two Apple boxes and keyboards so that the children’s TV stations could be played. 



With the help of a little bit more magic, the TVs were installed in April, just in time for Dental Health Month and the children have been watching TV during their visits to the clinic happily ever after.

Everyone at the North Preston Dental Clinic is grateful to all those who made the magic happen.