Francis Curd and Roselyn Kennedy, past and present presidents of the Forest City Dental Society respectively, accept two Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures Awards(tm) for the society's role in community outreach and raising scholarship funds for minority dental students. Also pictured is syndicated columnist Tony Brown, Marsha Butler and Jefferson Jones, chair of CWRU's endodontics department and from the National Dental Association's Foundation board. They received the award during the annual NDA meeting in Dallas.

Curd, along with Roselyn Kennedy, the current president and new CWRU assistant professor of dentistry, accepted the engraved crystal plaques and two, $1,000 awards this summer during the annual meeting of the National Dental Association in Dallas.

The Forest City Dental Society, the professional organization of minority dentists, collaborated with the CWRU School of Dentistry, St. Luke's Foundation of Cleveland, the Greater Cleveland Dental Association and the Federation of Community Planning to bring the Healthy Smiles—Bright Futures dental sealant program to 15,000 second- and sixth-grade students in the Cleveland Municipal School District.

The on-going program provides more than $2 million in free dental care to Cleveland's children through volunteer services from CWRU dental school faculty and students.

The sealant program also has been designed to be an integral part of the CWRU dental school curriculum, giving students and faculty an opportunity to serve their Cleveland neighbors.

Forest City Dental Society works alongside CWRU and Cleveland school personnel to make sure that each student in need of a dentist finds a dental home in an effort to conquer the oral health problems of the urban poor who lack access to dental care. The society's dentists also serve as role models in an effort to inspire more children to enter dentistry as a profession.

The local society has raised almost $20,000 for a Jefferson Jones Scholarship Fund through a benefit dinner that honored Jefferson Jones, chair of CWRU's endodontics department and a leader in promoting integration among faculty and students. The fund was established to support an African-American student's dental education at CWRU.

Curd noted that the mission of the NDA, established in 1900, is to "enhance the skills of its members, recruit underrepresented minorities into the profession and create opportunities for research among its members." The organization also works to elevate the status of the underserved through public and private