This month, SkyWater Search Partners celebrated our tenth annual “Walk a Mile for a Smile” event in support of Smile Network International, one of our favorite international charitable organizations.

Smile Network International is a Minnesota-based non-profit humanitarian organization that provides life-changing reconstructive surgery and healthcare services to children in underserved communities around the world.

While the primary goal of our Walk a Mile event is to raise community awareness and donations to help Smile Network continue its work, it’s also become a fun, healthy team highlight.

Each year, for an entire month, whenever a SkyWater employee walks the beautiful one-mile nature trail adjacent to our Carlson Towers headquarters, our firm donates $1 to Smile Network. Those team members who walk every day that month – and walk at least once with every SkyWater employee – also earn the coveted title “Renaissance Walker” and, of course, one of our most prized SkyWater sweatshirts.

This year, we completed 1,298 walks. We’re proud to report a $1,500 Walk a Mile donation to Smile Network, which will help cover the surgical costs for three children and a record-breaking 23 Renaissance Walkers. Speaking for the entire leadership team, thank you, Team SkyWater. You have made Walk a Mile a fun, deeply meaningful signature SkyWater event. You do us proud.

Beyond Corporate Responsibility

For us, Walk a Mile has never been a simple line item on a charitable giving report. In fact, for me, it has become a personal and inspiring reminder of the power each of us has to make the world a more just and compassionate place. By bringing health and comfort to underserved children, Smile Network restores hope to their parents and their communities. In 2017, my family and I visited Peru to volunteer with Smile Network. Meeting the families whose children were receiving this simple but radically life-changing cleft palate/cleft lip surgery was transformational. The experience changed my own life.

If you would like to know more about Smile Network International and how you can support its critical, life-saving work, visit their website here.