Mission Plasticos

As we announced earlier, Mission Plasticos Board member Nella Webster O’Grady has been selected as the 2020 winner of Orange County's Outstanding Philanthropist to be honored on National Philanthropy Day, November 19, 2020. Nella's dedication has elevated the visibility and popularity of Mission Plasticos, supported in large part by her strong leadership skills, ability to synergistically work with individuals at all levels, talent in securing attention for our programs and... activities, and strategic networking throughout our community. Join us in recognizing our community heroes and celebrating philanthropy in Orange County at the 35th annual National Philanthropy Day Virtual Event. Individual tickets are $35. Register for this interactive virtual event here: https://npdoc.org/

Misson Plasticos Reshaping Lives CA volunteer plastic surgeon Dr. Karen Leong hosted a BRA DAY 2020 celebration at Zena Dermatology celebrating the bravery and strength of her breast reconstruction patients. Our director Susan Williamson was also in attendance to celebrate w/ these incredible women. #FighterSquad

Tomorrow (October 21) is Bra Day otherwise known as Breast Reconstruction Awareness Day. National Breast Reconstruction Awareness (BRA) Day is an initiative designed to promote education, awareness, and access to information regarding post-mastectomy breast reconstruction. Breast cancer survivors are incredibly brave and have their own unique journey, but BRA Day is a way to let them know they are not alone. Informing women of their reconstruction options is critically imp...ortant to improving life after breast cancer. Research shows that less than a quarter (23 percent) of women receive necessary information about their breast reconstruction options at the time of their mastectomy and BRA Day aims to change that! Our RESHAPINGLIVES CA program offers post-mastectomy reconstruction free of charge to those who qualify. To learn more about this program, to apply for surgical consideration, or to donate, please visit: http://missionplasticos.org/

Plastic surgeon, Dr Karen Leong, talks about why she joined our team of volunteer surgeons and dedicates her time to our local ReShaping Lives CA program. Watch to learn more!

Big or small let’s save them all! Today marks the start of Pink October, a month dedicated to breast cancer awareness and early screening - detection. There are approximately 2.1 million impacted by breast cancer each year. Let’s work together to reduce this number.... This topic is very close to our hearts. Each year we perform post-mastectomy breast reconstruction on women who are unable to afford the surgery. Both here, through our ReshapingLives CA program and in other regions. Helping these women reclaim their lives following their battle with cancer is life-changing for all involved.

Back in March our team headed to Bolivia for what would end up being our last medical mission trip of 2020 due to COVID. While our trip abruptly ended due to the country enforcing visitors to leave, we were able to perform some surgeries such as this one on little Leonardo. Just over a year old, Leonardo was born with a severe cleft lip. After we left, he did experience a road bump during his recovery and needed to have another surgery. He has since recovered perfectly and 6 months later he his healthy, happy and his parents couldn't be more grateful for the impact we made on his quality of life.

We sure do miss being out in the field operating on patients & training doctors. Hopefully in the near future we will be able to travel abroad again so we can get back to doing what we love - helping others - For now, we are working on setting up a surgery day for our local ReShaping Lives CA program. Stay Tumed!

Also known as World Peace Day Today is a reminder to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire. Now more than ever we must show respect, kindness, and empathy toward one another. Find ways to do good vs harm. Help those who need it most.

We are pleased to announce our executive director Susan Williamson will be serving on the UCI Advisory Board sharing hey insights from 20+ years in the non-profit space. The Customer Experience Certificate Program at the UCI, Division of Continuing Education, assists people with honing in on their skills by learning to understand the psychological aspect of the customer experiences to generate deeper customer insights. They learn and integrate strategies and methodologies to measure, evaluate, and improve the customer experience throughout their organization. The CX Certificate program is designed by industry experts and thought leaders, for professionals. http://cx.ce.uci.edu/susan-williamson.html

It is with great pleasure that we announce board-member Nella Webster O’Grady has been selected as the 2020 winner of Orange County's Outstanding Philanthropist as part of National Philanthropy Day. For those who know Nella, this will likely come as little surprise as she is widely lauded in philanthropy circles for her vision, leadership, drive, compassion, and generosity. Nella became involved with Mission Plasticos in 2005 upon learning about our programs from friends in... the community. She was eager to do more to support our work in a variety of leadership roles, beginning with engaging her firm Palo Capital (now Miracle Mile Advisors) to manage Mission Plasticos’ investments pro-bono. Her philanthropic activity has included serving on the Board of Directors (current), participating as a member of the Friends of Plasticos auxiliary group, leading a Fundraising and Marketing Committee, developing, implementing, and evaluating publicity campaigns and fundraising strategies, and serving on the Celebration of Global Friendships Gala Committee. Nella's dedication has elevated the visibility and popularity of Mission Plasticos, supported in large part by her strong leadership skills, ability to synergistically work with individuals at all levels, talent in securing attention for our programs and activities, and strategic networking throughout our community. Congratulations on this much-deserved award, Nella!

One year ago, our team of volunteer heroes, Treated, Trained and Transformed lives in Saenz Pena, Argentina. Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, we have had to postpone our trip planned for this week, to continue our vital work. We miss hundreds of medical professionals we work with overseas and look forward to working together again in 2021. In the meantime, our focus will be on our Domestic program, Reshaping Lives CA, which provides reconstructive surgery to uninsured people in out own community.