Here's a photo of that beautiful smile on a fantastic young man ... thanks again to all of you who helped us out ... we'll make sure he brushes after the cake!
Well ... it finally happened ... Shelby got his braces off 2-3 weeks ago so we thought we'd post a new photo of his brand new smile. He's been a model patient and we're super proud of him. I think the whole dental clinic is going to miss him! A massive thanks to Amey and Bruce and all the staff at the Manawatu Dental Group in Palmerston North. They have made the whole journey so easy. And have helped some of our other young people as well. And a huge thanks to all of you who contributed something to this page. I know it's made a huge difference for Shelby. Your generosity won't ever be forgotten. Ngā Mihi nui!
Greetings to everyone and apologies for the long awaited response I assume you are all quite interested in what’s been going on with my smile, I can assure you it is nothing short of handsome. For the past few months have been some of the most exciting moments in my journey so far. I’m waiting with such anticipation for my braces to come off because each day they’re becoming better and I am grateful for the support I have received over all this time and I’d like to thank everyone who has given me this opportunity thank you so much and I wish you all fare well until our next response god bless~Shelby.
Well it’s been just over a year since all of you helped Shelby to raise enough money for his orthodontic treatment and so we thought it was time to update you all with how he’s been going.
As you can see from the pictures his incisor is down now and the two milk teeth that were stopping it from descending have both been removed. He is thrilled with the result as are we all. And he has been great at looking after his braces. He has even managed to make every appointment and charmed everyone at the Manawatu Dental group. I think they are going to miss him once his treatment has run its course! Bruce, his dentist, thinks he needs another couple of months to make some final adjustments and then he will have the braces removed.
We want to thank you all so much again for your help in raising the money for Shelby’s dental work. We actually finished up with a couple of thousand dollars more than we needed - thanks to your generosity - and over the last year we have put that towards other young people who have also needed dental work, or some help with food vouchers or petrol vouchers. It makes such a difference to be able to help young people out this way at our clinic.
In fact, due to the success of this page, we’ve decided to set up another Give-a-little page to help us continue to raise more funds to help out young people in our community. Since we’ve helped out Shelby we’ve come across so many young people who can’t afford the dental work they need.
Shelby has also posted you all a message as well so make sure you have a look at it.
Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. A big thank you again to all of you. You really have made a difference to lots of young people at our clinic.
tena koutou katoa. it's me Shelby. I just want to mihi everybody who supported me in my time of need. i fail to find words that comprehend how thankful grateful and be-humbled i am by all of you. it brings tears of joy to my eyes because i see that the communities of Horowhenua and Aotearoa have come together to aid a little Maori boy to who they don't know and it gives me hope that many other youth like myself may be helped in their time of need. so thank you all so very much. may honour and glory illuminate the righteous path to the celestial plains to which our noble ancient ones reside.
Wow! To all of you out there who have contributed to Shelby's dental fund - you guys are awesome. We are really humbled by your response to Shelby's page. And thank you so much for all your messages of encouragement. He and his family are really thrilled. The orthodontist is already booking the appointments he needs over the next year or so to deal with his teeth.
We just wanted to let you know that the extra funds are really appreciated too. They will go into the fighting fund we keep for the young people at the clinic. We dip into it quite a lot to help them out with things they might need. So this will be a welcome top-up.
We have a set of prayer flags in the clinic and we clip the names of everyone we're cheering for onto them. We'll make sure to put up a tag for all of you who have helped us through Give-a-little. We will sing out to you through the day. Best wishes to all of you.
Hi everyone - just letting you know that we are extending the closing date for Shelby's page. Despite some really generous donations we still have a way to go to get him the dental work he needs. The page will close now on July 31 and we will try to give things a push along again. So if you're reading this please think about adding a donation for Shelby. It would be brilliant to be able to get him the help he needs. Thanks for taking the time to visit the page.
