Cleft Palate Charity Smile Train Under Fire for Insensitive Halloween Flyer

Smile Train, the non-profit organization that helps children with cleft palates get the medical [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Smile Train, the non-profit organization that helps children with cleft palates get the medical services they need, is under fire for a Halloween-themed mailer that left parents shocked.

"What if every day felt like Halloween?" the envelope reads, with the image of a child with a cleft palate. Inside, the letter reads, "You have the power to put an end to their nightmare."

The mailer went viral after Kristen Carr, a Texas mother, posted a photo of it on Facebook last week, reports Today. She felt the post compared children with cleft palates to monsters.

"I am, quite simply, appalled. I am disappointed, and I am also furious," Carr wrote in a Facebook post that she has taken down. "The clear connotation is that, pre-surgery, cleft-affected children are akin to monsters."

"I am not going to waste my time explaining that every single parent of a cleft-affected child falls head over heels in love with their child's original 'wide smile.' Instead, I'll just share this post with a group of over 9,000 moms of cleft-affected kids, and they can tell you their stories for themselves," she continued.

Carr, who has a 3-year-old cleft-affected son, wrote that she will no longer support Smile Train after already donating $10,000 to the charity.

Other parents told Today it was devastating to see the mailer.

"My first thought was, 'Why?' " said Rashell Sprague, a California adult who is cleft-affected herself. "Why would they even associate Halloween with a child born like this? Monsters are the ones that choose to do awful things to other people — being born like this, we don't have a choice and being described as a monster is an awful feeling."

Smile Train helps children in developing countries who have cleft palates and cannot afford an operation, which could cost at least $5,000. CEO Susannah Schaefer sent a statement to the Daily Mail, apologizing for the mailer.

"We are truly sorry that the mailing was offensive and hurtful, and we understand the reaction it caused," the statement reads. "It was never our intent to adversely depict the very children that we are dedicated to helping. Our intent was solely to help children with cleft lip and/or palate live healthy and happy lives."

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