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Health & Fitness

About Team EMPOWER Running in the Hamptons Marathon

Smile Train's Team EMPOWER will be running in the The 77th Annual Hamptons Marathon & Half-Marathon on Saturday, September 28, 2013.

Smile Train’s mission is to provide a child born with a cleft the same opportunities in life as a child born without a cleft. They provide free cleft lip and palate surgery and comprehensive cleft care to poor children in developing countries. In addition to providing hundreds of thousands of cleft surgeries since 1999, Smile Train has provided training to doctors and medical professionals in 85+ countries.

 

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Unlike many charities that do several different things, Smile Train's mission is focused on solving a single problem: cleft lip and palate. Clefts are a major problem in developing countries where millions of children are suffering with unrepaired clefts. Most cannot eat or speak properly and aren't allowed to attend school or hold a job. They face very difficult lives filled with shame and isolation, pain and heartache. Their clefts usually go untreated because they are poor - too poor to pay for a simple surgery that has been around for decades. 

 

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Team EMPOWER gives athletes all around the world the opportunity to make their race count towards these smiles and provides free surgery for those in need. Every step, every lap and every mile means more than crossing the finish line; it means new smiles, new beginnings and the opportunity to live full and productive lives for children who would have never known otherwise.  

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