Restore Gina's Smile

We want to help our dear friend and badass community servant Gina Furtado to get a new bridge. Due to a birth defect, Gina has not had two front teeth since birth. Despite being mercilessly bullied in school until she got a prosthetic bridge, Gina has turned out okay. She has always loved people and animals, and as an adult has many friends in the community and is well liked by the middle school students she serves as a crossing guard at the most dangerous intersection in the town of Arlington, Massachusetts. One frigid day, Gina saw a student had no gloves, so she gave the student her own spare gloves. She saw a dog running in traffic, stopped traffic and saved the dog! She is that kind of person.

 

 

Gina's family are all hard-working, good people. In addition to her job as a 2x/day crossing guard, Gina works as a pet sitter, as a volunteer in animal rescue, and is always there for people in need. She and her family members volunteer at the Boys & Girls Club, provide food to friends and neighbors, and have a soft spot especially for single moms, and for kids who want a bike.

 

 

 

In trying to go through her state health insurance, Gina has run into one roadblock after another. The agency considers the problem "cosmetic" despite Gina needing to be able to bite into food, which she cannot currently. Through a state-funded dentist, Gina received a partial plate that in addition to looking fake AF, is not for eating, affects her speech, and has caused painful migraines. The dentist who gave her the partial did not remove the hardware from her broken bridge (which had lasted from the mid-1990s to now, about 15 years longer than expected), and that continues to cause Gina constant pain. The appeals process is as torturous as the partial plate and there is no indication it would have the slightest chance of success. Gina has price-shopped and found a dentist who will do quality work to remove the old hardware and create a new bridge, and he requires payment at time of service.

Gina's family is super supportive and would take care of this without our help, but we want to help Gina now, by raising money for her dental work to restore her smile and her dental health as fast as possible, and get our friend back into what she loves and does best - helping others with a smile!