Smile Partners With We Promise Foundation: Receives Grant For $5,000

NORFOLK, Va. - Dec. 23, 2016 - PRLog -- SMILE (Samantha Makes It A Little Easier) is thrilled to announce its newest partnership with We Promise Foundation through a $5,000 grant. These funds will go directly towards the SMILE Kids Program.

The SMILE Kids Program provides assistive and adaptive medical devices like hearing aids, therapeutic tricycles, elevating wheelchair seats, lifts, and more to children in the Hampton Roads area who are impacted by life-threatening conditions with the goal of "making [their] lives a little easier." Assistive and adaptive devices are provided at no cost to families with the intent of putting SMILEs on children's faces while easing the treatment and financial burdens associated with severe medical conditions.

"In 2016, SMILE served 11 children in Hampton Roads, providing over $21,000 worth of assistive and adaptive equipment which is almost three times the number of children we helped in 2015. We aim to deliver SMILEs to 30 more children in 2017, and We Promise Foundation's grant will go a long way to helping us accomplish this goal," said Kristen Mantlo, Executive Director of SMILE.

The We Promise Foundation is the charitable arm of Chartway Federal Credit Union and its divisions of HeritageWest and SouthWest Community. We Promise Foundation awards annual grants through a competitive application and review process. The We Promise Foundation awards annual grants through a competitive application and review process to organizations who are passionate about making a difference in the lives of children struggling with life-threatening, degenerative, debilitating or chronic illness, or those facing tremendous hardships.

PHOTO CAPTION: SMILE Kid Jackson shows off his new hearing aids purchased by SMILE.jpeg - SMILE Kid and cancer survivor Jackson shows off, to Kristen Mantlo, how little the new hearing aids are that SMILE provided him at the beginning of the school year. Jackson has lost a portion of his hearing due to his cancer treatment. Photo Credit: Thomas Gorman Photography

SMILE (Samantha Makes It a Little Easier)

SMILE is a nonprofit organization founded in memory of Samantha Trost a Virginia Beach resident who lost her battle to childhood cancer in 2009. SMILE's mission is to enhance the lives of children impacted by a life-threatening condition through education, encouragement, and empowerment. SMILE's flagship program SMILE Kids provides, at no cost, assistive and adaptive devices to children with life-threatening conditions that would enhance their quality of life by easing the burdens associated with their condition.

To learn more about SMILE and children they help check out their website at http://smileasier.org or visit and like the SMILE's Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/smileasier.