Lee Legler, DMD, of Legler Orthodontics, Vero Beach, Fla, is launching the 2nd annual Making Smiles Scholarship Program in October.Legler and his wife Kelly started the program in June 2009 to provideorthodontic scholarships to local students who showed a commitment tocommunity service.
In the program’s first year, the couple donated $25,000 in orthodontic scholarships to five students.
“We knew we wanted to create a scholarship program to donate orthodontictreatments to outstanding kids who really needed it, and to inspirethese young people to contribute more to the community,” KellyLegler said.
The scholarship program requires a 3.0 grade point average or higher (Baverage minimum), leadership qualities, strong parental involvement,financial need, and a desire to help others through charitable serviceor volunteerism.
“While all the requirements are important to us, we are most concernedwith awarding a student who wants to give back to their community. Ifeel very strongly that a young person who learns early on to ‘createsmiles’ for others through charity will have a lifetime of success,” Lee Legler said.
Scholarship winners are required to start a charitable program of theirown by identifying a group of people in need, and then creating andimplementing a program to serve the need. Their progress is monitored bythe students’ schools and Legler Orthodontics during their treatmenttime in braces.
