Naples Plastic Surgery

Naples Plastic Surgery Community Support Endeavors

Dr. Gardner, Dr. Baccaro, Dr. Walsh, Dr. Bonett, and the dedicated staff at their Naples plastic surgery practice are strong proponents of supporting the local community, and actively provide support to a broad range of regional and national charities. Whether through fundraising drives, advocacy, volunteering or direct financial support, Naples Plastic Surgery and its staff contribute to more than a dozen organizations that are working to make the Naples area, state of Florida, and the world, a better place.

Among Dr. Gardner’s community support and charitable endeavors are his “hands on” work with Operation Smile, which provides cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial abnormality corrective surgery to children around the world to ensure that they can live a normal life. Without this surgery children born with a cleft lip, cleft palate or other facial deformity suffer from malnourishment, difficulty with speech, and a devastating social stigma that turns such children into outcasts from their communities and relegates them to a life of hardship.

Operation Smile has provided hundreds of thousands of free, safe surgeries to children and young adults in developing countries where medical facilities are scarce and where most people cannot afford such corrective surgery. The organization is instrumental in getting surgical supplies and equipment to areas in need, and then coordinating the surgeries through skilled surgical volunteers such as Dr. Gardner.

Through Operation Smile, Dr. Gardner has performed surgical missions for children in Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, Peru, Honduras, Bolivia and Paraguay. He has also provided charitable surgeries to children in the Naples area and Southwest Florida.

While Naples Plastic Surgery’s community support and charitable giving run the gamut, our doctors and staff are especially active in supporting children, animals, literacy, and the fight against cancer. As such, we encourage our patients to support any or all of these great organizations:

CAN – Cancer Alliance of Naples (CAN offers assistance to cancer stricken families and individuals whose lives are being affected financially and emotionally.)
The Diabetes Empowerment Foundation (empowers people living with diabetes to live positive, productive, limitless lives!)
Michael J. Szwed Fundraiser (provides funding to help Collier County youth excel in academics and sports)
Pace Center for Girls (provides educational and counseling support to at-risk girls throughout Florida)
Animal Refuge Center (the largest non-euthanasia oriented animal shelter in Southwest Florida)
For the Love of Cats (the only all cat, all volunteer, no-kill rescue in Collier County)
Children’s Advocacy Center of Collier County (advocates for child abuse protection and provides support to victims of child abuse)
Greater Naples Little League (helps hundreds of Naples-area boys and girls participate in the national pastime, baseball)
Miss FL Scholarship Pageant (provides scholarship funding for eligible women)
Susan G Komen (mission to end breast cancer and support those fighting breast cancer)
WGCU- PBS (support for public broadcasting in Southwest Florida)
The Wine Tasters of Naples (raises funds for Collier County charities)
Literacy Volunteers of Collier County (provides one-on-one tutoring to adults wanting to improve their English speaking, writing and reading skills)
The Sunshine Kids (provides emotional support and group actives to children battling cancer)
Our Mother’s Home (residential program that allows teenage mothers and their children to stay together while learning parenting skills)
Avow Hospice Paws Pet Program (provides hospice care to seriously ill adults and support for their loved ones)
The United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation (promotes research and education for the diagnosis, treatment, and cure of mitochondrial disorders and provides support to affected individuals and families)
Earl Morrall NFL Alumni Celebrity Charity Golf Classic (a charity golf tournament featuring former NFL players which benefits children’s charities in Southwest Florida)
Toys for Tots (distributes toys to children whose parents cannot afford to buy them gifts for Christmas)
The Foundation for Prader-Willi Research (a foundation that researches treatments to help children suffering from Prader-Willi syndrome)

Dr. Paul Gardner’s Mission Work

While Dr. Gardner is highly regarded locally for his knowledge and performance as a cosmetic surgeon, his name is much more widespread. Dr. Gardner has also done mission work using his personal time to travel to Central America, South America, and Asia on eight “Operation Smile” missions.

Operation Smile

Operation Smile is an organization that was founded in 1982 and is known for the work done by volunteer surgeons to correct facial deformities. These surgeries are mostly done on young children in third world countries who might not otherwise have access to or be able to afford the surgery. Although Dr. Gardner has mentioned the organization’s strong desire to specifically target children, he has shared stories of several adults he has treated with Operation Smile, and how truly inspiring it has been to have the ability to help people of all ages.

In his experience, Dr. Gardner notes time efficiency as one of the more important aspects of mission work. He always knew he wanted to do mission work, and chose Operation Smile because of the efficiency in setting up and recruiting patients to each mission site. With just a couple weeks to actually screen for and do the surgery, Dr. Gardner notes it is about doing the maximum amount of good in the minimum amount of time.

Dr. Gardner has performed several local surgeries similar to those performed overseas. “The infrastructure to treat kids with facial deformities here in the United States is so good here that you rarely see kids with any of these problems. It is truly heartbreaking to go to these other countries and see fully grown kids walking around with defects that can be fixed with an hour and a half surgery. I actively support Operation Smile and encourage all my patients to contribute as well.”

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