HIRES DENTAL

Four years ago, then four-year-old Hannah Turner and her family were serving Thanksgiving dinner at a local homeless shelter. There Hannah saw a man whose shoes had split open, revealing he wasn’t wearing socks. Although her mother, Doris, reassured her the man’s shoes would keep his feet warm. Hannah wasn’t convinced and told her, “Mommy, he can have my socks.” The next day, Doris took Hannah to purchase and distribute socks to local shelters.

After hearing Hannah speak, a Hires Dental staff member asked the entire staff, and patients, to support Hannah Turner in her quest to collect socks. Dr. Hires wants to help homeless individuals and families get something NEW this holiday season! It is imperative that even those who have fallen on hard times have “warm feet”. As Hannah says... “warm feet, warm heart”

Local Girl Scouts Troop 60703 and Brownie Troop 75019 from Whiteford Agricultural will be donating socks and kicking off their own parallel campaign to collect new socks at their school.
Hires Dental welcomes the partnership of any groups who can help the office reach their goal of 1,000 pairs of socks!

Hannah’s Socks serves homeless and domestic-violence shelters in the Midwest, with offices in Toledo and Cincinnati. Hannah's Socks collects donated materials in the form of new men's, women's and children's socks and undergarments, then leverages partnerships with local shelters for distribution to both the homeless and to victims of domestic violence. In addition, it supports programs serving under-privileged children. For more information, visit www.hannahssocks.org.

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TOLEDO, OHIO -- In west Toledo Friday, more than 80 area veterans were given a gift of gratitude from a local dentist and optometrist.

The dental office of Dr. Rick Hires was a busy place. A full house, filled with scores of area veterans, veterans who gave to their country, but who need some help and found it here, as Dr. Hires and his staff offered free dental care for the day.

Dr. Rick Hires says, "Preponderance of extractions, abcesses and things that guys, or gals have put off for a long time because they didn't have the money or ability to take care of it."

For many of these vets today was the first time in years they have been able to take care of these sometimes painful problems. Tifanee Mack, a veteran, says, " It makes you feel good, it makes you feel we're not forgotten about." And without such a gesture, she says, "I would have just have to wait until I get insurance again..in order to get it done."

And this free clinic was not just for their teeth...but for the eyes - as Optometrist Tracy Needham also took a closer look a their vision needs of these vets. Many of whom have been dealing with other wounds.

Veteran Jeff Smith says, "I've been through a lot this past year, I am ex military veteran, what happened to me in the military is a three year old kid walked up behind me with a land mine and I was shot in the back of the head."

"I felt and I think my staff feels the same way that veterans just don't get taken good care of and we wanted to give them an opportunity to to get some issue taken care of whatever they needed," says Dr. Hires.

And so here in a west Toledo dental office, an act of generosity met with the reward of appreciation.