THE FOLLOWING IS AN INTERVIEW BETWEEN DOCTOR STEVENS AND ANGELA:

AH: It's been said that our smile says a lot about our personality, but what about those who are too embarrassed to smile? A local doctor is working to make sure no one fits in that category. Here with us now is Orthodontist Doctor Lucas Stevens. Doctor Stevens, thanks for being here today, we appreciate it.
DR: Glad to be here.
AH: Now, you have hoped on board with Smile for a Lifetime and you established the Tallahassee Chapter. Tell us a little bit about it.
DR: Smile for a Lifetime is a national 501C3 organization created in 2008 by a Doctor in Jonesburough, Arkansas, and his vision was to help create self confidence and inspire hope and change the lives of children. And in so doing, he wanted to create chapters throughout the country that would serve children and sometimes adults in different areas of the country. Currently there are 90 chapters, 90 doctors in 30 states that are donating their service.
AH: One of the services you are providing is braces to children whose parents may not be able to afford them. So, explain to me why braces are so important. They aren't really a necessity, or are they?
DR: Well, in some cases biologically they can be a necessity, they can alleviate problems with crewing, nutrition, pain, headaches and that sort of thing. Sometimes there can be some sort of social issues that we can help with, and that is probably the more common effect that we are going to have and we hope that we can create change and inspire hope in these kids' lives so they can go on from there and create change in their community.
AH: Alright. And Smile for a Lifetime Tallahassee has a scholarship that it's giving out. Tell me about that.
DR: What we've promised the national organization that we would do is take care of six kids per year with braces on a pro bono basis, and what we do is award them a scholarship for braces that we would take care of at my office by my team at no charge to them.
AH: Now, the deadline is the 15th.
DR: Well, actually, there is no real deadline, but we are trying to do is if people do apply and if they get their application in before the 15th, we'd really love to get some great Christmas presents to two or three kids. So, if they get their application in by the 15th, my board of directors will be meeting on the 17th and we're hoping to pick out two or three kids for a special Christmas present for them and for us.
AH: So that's the Christmas deadline.
DR: That's for Christmas. We're going to treat, two, three, four more in the Spring.
AH: Dr. Stevens, thank you very much for joining us, we appreciate it.
DR: Thanks for having me.