Spread the Joy: Advent 2025: Day 14

Tonight marks the first night of Hanukkah. With my wife being of Jewish heritage, I traditionally honor her with one day of my annual Advent being devoted to my bride and her tribe. But since I am focusing on charities this year with her help, I decided to honor someone from my childhood who made me interested in Jewish culture and prompted me to make marrying a Jewish woman one of my martial goals! That person would be Dr. Burton Horwitz, D.D.S. 

Now growing up, I wasn't a fan of the dentist. My mother took some bad advice and didn't have me going for regular checkups until I was maybe 3 or 4. As a result, my mouth was lousy with cavities. I hated the adolescent torture device known as a 'raincoat', which was these rubber stoppers that got wedges into your jaw to keep your mouth open during a procedure. To this day, if I have to have a filling or more than likely a cracked tooth fixed, I tell my dentist: 'NO RAINCOAT!' and I'm almost 50.

Dr. Horwitz is an active member of the Jewish community in Raleigh, North Carolina. He's been on TV annually for I don't know how many years lighting a giant community menorah and bringing awareness of pro-semitism! He has been a faculty member of the UNC School of Dentistry for decades and was awarded the Order of the Long-leaf Pine for his years of dedication and service to the community. (Plus, his brother used to own this amazing deli with the best Reuben on Earth!) But what many probably don't know about Dr. Horwitz is the amount of pro bono dentistry work he has provided for area children and kids around the world. 

For some reason, all dentists are off on Friday. It's a mystery that probably will never be solved, up there with the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and if Bigfoot is real. Dr. Horwitz didn't spend his Fridays off playing golf. Instead, he would spend his Sabbath eve mornings running free clinics for poor and uninsured children in the Wake County area. He's also traveled to London, Ukraine and Africa to run free clinics for children in desperate need of dental health and education. 

So in honor of Dr. Horwitz, I am selecting the Smiles for Life Foundation. Since 1998, they have raised nearly $60 million dollars. With those funds, the have provided dental health care and accessories, like toothbrushes and toothpaste to patients both young and old. One of their main focuses is on those with developmental disabilities, as they suffer disproportionately from poor dental health than those of all economic groups. 

March begins a global springtime initiative every year for Smiles for Life. With the deadline looming, there's a trio of options for you to consider:

1. Find a participating area dentist office and donate to their clinic efforts.

2. If you are a dentist or work at  for a dentist orthodontist, join the Smiles for Life Network and host a clinic for those in need.

3. Become a corporate sponsor. Come on, you CEOs and business owners, we know you've got some tax exempt funds lying around somewhere!!!

For more information about these options, click here and then scroll downward.

CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST'S DENTAL HEALTH ACTIVITY BOOK

   I hated going to the dentist when I was a kid. Not much has changed as an adult, but I really hated it as a kid. I had a ton of cavities and when I had to have a filling, I always had this thing wedged into the jaw of my mouth, called a raincoat. Having it inserted hurt like hell and I still think to this day it's been a leading contributor to my TMJ.

    But one of the things I really enjoyed about the dentist was getting the free prize at the end of the visit. You always got 3 things: a new toothbrush, a sticker, and a comic book of your choice! For an avid collector like myself, it was the ultimate score and probably the only reason I didn't hide or run away when it was time to visit the dentist. Amongst the comic heroes I could choose from were Donald Duck, Casper, Richie Rich, and the Archie Gang. After picking one of those beauties, it was fun times in the car ride home.

    Sadly, those days are over. All I ever get from visiting my dentist now is that little goodie bag with a toothbrush, some floss, and a tube of toothpaste. True, I am extremely vigilant with my dental hygiene these days. I pride myself in staying away from those darn cavities. But I would gladly give up the free toothpaste to get a comic book for all my dental troubles.

  A few months ago, I found this activity comic at a thrift store. Sure, it has zero value, some of the pages have been colored and filled in, and the cover has a grease penciled price of 10 cents on it. But this is one of the comic books I remember getting as a kid.

  I particularly remember this book for a couple of reasons. Every year a couple of dentist assistants would come to my school and do a little presentation on how to floss and brush your teeth. ( I still remember the song "wiggle giggle, wiggle giggle...1-2-3" as a way to remember how to clean each tooth.) This book was one of the items they would pass out after the lecture. Casper's Activity Book was also an incentive at my dentist that if you choose it, you could pick 2 bonus comics instead of just one. 3 books for a visit that normally would net me just one book? Yes, please. Needless to say, I racked up a bunch of these activity books.

   Drawn in stark black and white, it stars Casper the Friendly Ghost, his ghoulish brothers, and some other guests. Filled with your standard activities: connect the dots, word scramble, mazes, pages to color, and matching, one activity that was always included and I just despised, were the jumbled pictures. With that you either had to copy by hand or cut out and glue. Mine never came out right and cut up a comic book? Are you crazy?

    This little booklet was a fun little trip down memory lane. Too bad you don't see many dentists giving away free comics anymore and if they do, well I just happened to pick one who didn't. It's too bad that those type of freebies don't occur to adults. Like I said earlier, I'd gladly choose an activity book like this in order to get two more instead of that stupid toothpaste goodie bag.

  Worth Consuming

  Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.