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Carole Mikita ReportingHundreds of teenagers from throughout the world are meeting this week at Weber State University as volunteers for 'Operation Smile'.
'Operation Smile' is a non-profit volunteer medical group that has provided free facial reconstruction for children and adults around the world. The young people help in two ways.
A child born in a developing nation with a deformity is immediately rejected -- no school, no friends, no life outside his or her home. Enter the doctors and nurses of 'Operation Smile', offering free facial surgeries for cleft lips, cleft palates and other problems. Since 1982, they have treated 98-thousand children and adults in 30 countries.
Jose Villegas was one of those patients; a two pound tumor kept him from working.
Jose Villegas: "I was horrified by that. I couldn't find a company physical requirement. I was devastated. I was looking and searching and in '85 I heard about Operation Smile."
This week, more than 300 young people from around the world have come to Utah for an international conference to learn how to raise money and become volunteers for those medical missions. Last April, Lacie Masi from New Mexico went to China.
Lacie Masi, Albuquerque, New Mexico: "I remember the first time we saw one of the 15-year-old boys look at himself in the mirror and stuff, you know, in shock. he couldn't stop looking at himself and we all just had to leave the room because we were all gonna cry, because it's just so life-changing."
They say, there is no feeling like seeing the joy when lives are changed by Operation Smile. This September, Guadalajara, Mexico is the destination of choice for Utah's Chelsea Gould.
Chelsea Gould, Orem, Utah: "Keeping the kids happy. So we'll be working with the doctors and nurses, things that they need done. We can run and go do things for them or make sure we're helping wherever it's needed."
Medical missions are scheduled in different countries ten months of the year. Operation Smile volunteers say so many more people need the help.
