600 Miles to Healing: The Journey That Started It All

Debbie Fox, from a small town near Chattanooga, TN, was born in 1955 with a facial cleft. In 1969, FACES: The National Craniofacial Association was founded as the Debbie Fox Foundation, spearheaded by her schoolteacher, Mrs. Madge Apple. The foundation raised money to cover her travel expenses to Johns Hopkins Hospital for complex craniofacial reconstructive surgery performed by renowned surgeon Dr. Milton Edgerton.

The foundation created on Debbie's behalf evolved over the next few decades, but its mission remained consistent: to help children and adults from across the United States receive the craniofacial care they need, regardless of distance.

This September, we celebrate 57 years of helping families with financial assistance for expenses incurred while traveling 60 miles or more to a craniofacial center for reconstructive surgeries.

Please join our month-long celebration with a gift to FACES to benefit the craniofacial families we serve. If Debbie Fox and her mother were to travel 600 miles today from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, the average cost for one day would be:

$57 will provide food for ONE day for a client and caregiver traveling to a craniofacial surgery
$97 will cover the cost of fuel ONE way for a client driving 600 miles to a craniofacial surgery
$157 will cover the cost of lodging for ONE night for a client and caregiver traveling to a craniofacial surgery
$311 will cover everything a family needs for ONE DAY of travel to craniofacial surgery — food, fuel, and a place to sleep — the same journey Debbie Fox and her mother made to Baltimore in 1969

Our birthday goal: raise enough to cover a full day of travel — food, fuel, and lodging — for 10 families this year. That's $3,110, one day at a time, one family at a time.

Celebrating 57 years of FACES