The Children’s Dental Health Foundation Receives the Robert Sosnick Award of Excellence at The Jewish Fund’s Annual Meeting

December 2004

For more information, contact Jodee Fishman Raines, (248) 203-1487

The Children’s Dental Health Foundation was incorporated in May 1999 by two Jewish dentists, Dr. Margo Woll and Dr. Marcy Borofsky, to provide subsidized dental care services to children who are uninsured or unable to pay for dental care.

Low-income and minority children experience a disproportionate level of oral health problems. Over 50% of tooth decay in this population goes untreated and over 51 million hours of school are missed each year because of dental related illness. CDHF provides dental services through school-based health clinics in the Detroit Public Schools, though a community clinic at Crockett Technical High School in Detroit, and through its related state-wide Mobile Dentists program. The organization, along with the related Mobile Dentists program, has provided 20,000 dental visits in 1,000 schools since 1996.

According to Jewish Fund Chair David Page, “Tooth decay is the most common infectious childhood disease – an especially troubling fact because it is largely preventable. The Children’s Dental Health Foundation has developed an effective and efficient way to provide dental care to low-income children by treating them in school. This avoids the problem of whether the parents are able to drive the children to the dentist office and takes some of the fear out of the visit for the children because it occurs in a familiar setting. Selecting this program for the Sosnick Award reflects The Jewish Fund’s commitment to improving the health care of the individuals beyond the Jewish community and recognizes our commitment to the City of Detroit.”

Accepting the award on behalf of Children’s Dental Health Foundation were its founders, Dr. Marcy Borofsky and Dr. Margo Woll.

The Robert Sosnick Award of Excellence was established in memory of Bob Sosnick, whose bold vision and leadership abilities led to the creation of The Jewish Fund. In tribute to Mr. Sosnick and in keeping with the mission of The Jewish Fund, the program selected for the award must be a collaborative, innovative and compassionate effort to improve the quality of life of our most vulnerable populations. Past winners of the Sosnick Award are JVS/JAS-Assisted Meals Program (2000), Kids Kicking Cancer (2001) and Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy Network (2002) and DMC/Sinai-Grace Hospital’s Comprehensive Heart Program (2003).

The Award was presented at The Jewish Fund’s Annual Meeting on December 9, 2004.

Other actions at the Annual Meeting included election of two new board members, Peter Alter and Mark Hauser and re-election of board members Joel Dorfman, Michael Maddin, Mervyn Manning, Robert Michaels, Robert Naftaly, George Nyman and David Page. David Page was re-elected as Board Chair and Robert Naftaly as Vice-Chair.

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The Jewish Fund was created in 1997 from proceeds of the sale of Sinai Hospital to the Detroit Medical Center and has since awarded over $25 million in grants to expand health and human services to residents of metropolitan Detroit.

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