You're a Winner—I'm a Winner!

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”—Sir Winston Churchill

In the last several decades it was hard to be an orthodontist and not be a winner. Just like a perfect storm, orthodontics has been the perfect profession for at least the last half century. Demographics have favored us. The desire of our culture to seek improved esthetics has favored us. The popularity of braces among the youth has favored us. Economic times have favored us.

None of these pluses would have sustained us, however, if we had not delivered a consistently improving service. If I were to try to build a practice today based on the information I received in my graduate program, I would, at best, fail to attract any patients, and at worst, I would be defending my failure to deliver the proper standard of care. In school we were prepared with the best information available from those who went before us and we were able to continually grow by the regular availability of new information. We have received a rich heritage.

If we look into our hearts and acknowledge the gifts we have received, we realize that to practice orthodontics is a joy. The rewards bring us a lifestyle which I for one will freely admit has exceeded my greatest expectations. This is all good, but it comes with obligations. We can give back in many ways, and the Board of Directors of the EH Angle Foundation have established an option for us to give back to our profession in a very meaningful and direct way through the Angle Heritage Campaign.

The purpose of the Angle Heritage Campaign is to build our discipline for the future. In 2000 we began by putting everything we published on the Internet and last year we put the entire 75-year archive of the Angle Orthodontist on line. We believe the Internet will one day be the primary method of communicating orthodontic information and, since the cost of electronic publication does not go up with increased usage, it should to be available to every person who seeks to learn.

The purpose of the Angle Heritage Campaign is to establish an endowment fund that will provide a sufficient annual interest stream to insure the availability of The Angle Orthodontist indefinitely into the future. We want to make our scientific information freely available to anyone anywhere. Only in this way will all orthodontists and all patients be able to maximally use and benefit from our science.

At our 2005 biennial meeting your Board of Directors committed our Foundation to establishing ongoing support for our open access Internet site independent of user fees. One short-term thrust is commercial support, and the GAC Corporation immediately came forward to support the current day-to-day operations of the site.

The critically important longer-term thrust is to build an endowment from our members and other supporters via current gifts, but most importantly via future gifts via a planned contribution in your will and estate plans. The Foundation's new endowment fund is for the single purpose of creating an endowment to provide an income stream that will support our journal into perpetuity. In order to insure the best support for this program, President Gary Baughman asked Southern California Director Rick McLaughlin to chair the Drive. Rick is building a major program and is arranging for you to learn more and ask questions at your individual Component meetings.

We will do the key thing an orthodontic Foundation is supposed to do—transmit orthodontic science to anyone anywhere without concern for profit or gain. All contributions will be used 100% for the stated goal. Our Foundation Treasurer, Phil Campbell, is the best!

Become a member of the Angle Heritage Campaign and know that every penny you give will do what it is supposed to do without any associated overhead costs. Contact Rick McLaughlin (RPMcLaugh@aol.com; Phone: 619–225–1611) to make a pledge or find out more. Your gift will provide the modern version of sending every orthodontist in the world to the Angle School!

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”—Nelson Henderson