Dr. Hunter Harrison is the lead orthodontist at Southern Orthodontic Specialists, P.C., and for the last ten years he has given abandoned children a smile of which they can be proud. Dr. Harrison has been involved with Palmer Home for Children, a faith-based residential care facility for kids, long before he was approached about helping the children with orthodontic work. “When our kids were old enough, we started taking our kids to be part of the Palmer Home camp too,” says Dr. Harrison, “and our church would take its kids and they would all go to church camp together for a week during the summer.”

His involvement with the Palmer Home presented the opportunity to something he says is ‘special’. “It’s something that is special that I can do. Not to say that nobody else can do that, but it’s just my way of giving back using my talents and my resources. It costs me several hundred dollars for each one of them to be able to do that (orthodontic work), plus my treatment time, but it’s just special though to be able to do that for those kids that have so little,” says Dr. Harrison. “The rewards, to me, are worth so much more than what it cost me. They (Palmer Home children) just inspire me.”

Dr. Harrison says the kid’s visit is just like any other of his patients, but it’s particularly rewarding to give them a smile they can be happy with. You see, to Dr. Harrison a smile is bigger than Orthodontics. He quotes Mother Teresa in saying “We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do,” Dr. Harrison exclaims. “They’re (these kids) so beaten down by other things in their life, this is just something we can do, so when they go out they can smile, and be proud of their smile…. This is just one more thing we can do to give them a leg up on life.”

Occasionally Dr. Harrison will receive a note of appreciation from the group. “Every once in awhile they will send me a little note just telling me thank you for the work we’ve done for them,” says Dr. Harrison. “It means a lot.” The upcoming holiday season for the Harrison family will also be about giving back to St Jude and others, both monetarily and with their time.