Local teen brings smiles to children around the world

When Nikki Saucedo began her search for a project to earn the highest award in Girl Scouting, she knew only that she wanted to do something “to enhance life.”

Little did she know that her decision to make puppets to comfort children who were having cleft palate surgery would lead to a trip to Ethiopia, a presentation where she taught more than 400 teens to sew, and a spot on the youth council for an international organization.

And, of course, she earned the Girl Scout Gold Award.

It all happened because of her involvement in Operation Smile, an international organization that, since 1982, has treated more than 135,000 children and young adults with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities, according to the organization’s Web site.

Nikki’s father had seen something about the program and showed it to her.

“I saw how much they were helping these children — what a difference they were making in their lives,” said Nikki, a 17-year-old senior at Liberty High School. “I thought I could make something to comfort the children when they were going into surgery.”

She started with a yarn doll and tested it on her toddler cousins, who quickly demolished it. Then she tried sock puppets, but it was harder for others to sew on the decorations.

“I needed something simple, easy, cost-effective and easy to pack for shipping,” she said.

She found success with colorful felt hand puppets.

She recruited fellow basketball players, Girl Scouts, church members and sewing groups to make puppets — using either her design or their own, if they were so inclined.

Nine months later, the first 200 “comfort buddies” were shipped to children in China, Kenya, Costa Rica, Egypt, India and Ethiopia.

That earned her the Girl Scout award, which she received in May.

“When I finished my pattern book and DVD, I kind of figured I was done with the project,” she said. “But no.”

Her project had caught the eye of officials at Operation Smile headquarters. They figured her puppets would be great service projects for school chapters, so they invited her to run a workshop at the International Student Leadership Conference in August in Virginia.

Nikki also became part of an elite group: Operation Smile conducts dozens of international medical missions each year, and two teens from student chapters around the globe are chosen to participate in each mission. About 90 teens participate yearly, said spokesman Scott Vooss. This year, Nikki was selected for a mission to Ethiopia in October.

Suddenly, she was in a whirlwind of new experiences: a public speaking gig before more than 400 students from 16 countries; traveling alone to another country; living on rice and bread for 10 days; watching surgeons repair poor children’s deformities.

“It was amazing to go over there and see a whole different culture,” she said. “I got to see the kids and give them a toy before they went into surgery.”

She and a student from Swink, were an integral part of the team of volunteer surgeons, nurses and other medical personnel. Nikki said one of the students’ jobs is to teach dental hygiene to the patients, so she collected about 3,000 toothbrushes and stuffed about 1,000 of them in her suitcase among about 150 puppets.

Operation Smile also appointed her to its youth Executive Leadership Council, which works to get more students involved and plans youth events.

Chris Casper, who has sponsored the Operation Smile chapter at Swink High School in southeastern Colorado for four years and helped Nikki start a chapter at her school, said Nikki’s appointment to the council is “a huge deal.”

“It takes a certain person to get that involved, and Nikki is definitely that kind of person,” said Casper. “She’s always thinking of others first, and that’s what makes her such a wonderful young woman.”

Nikki attributes much of her success to her Girl Scout experiences.

“Girl Scouting is kind of cool,” she said. “It gives you a lot of opportunities.”

Opportunities that help you figure out where you’re headed. Before the Ethiopia trip, Nikki thought she’d pursue a career in psychology. But she’s changed her mind.

She hopes to attend the University of Colorado, Boulder, as an Air Force ROTC student and get a bachelor’s degree in environmental science. Then she wants to go to medical school.

“And I’m not going to travel anymore unless there’s a service project I can do in the country I’m visiting,” she said.

About Nikki
School: Liberty High, senior
Parents: Joe and Terri Saucedo
Girl Scouts: Started as a Brownie and is now a Senior Girl Scout; earned the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards; is one of two Colorado girls nominated for the national 2009 Young Women of Distinction Award, which will be given in February.
Sports: Lacrosse, basketball

About Operation Smile
The organization was founded in 1982 by Dr. William P. Magee Jr., a plastic surgeon, and his wife, Kathleen, a nurse and clinical social worker, after a medical mission trip to the Philippines. The organization is headquartered in Norfolk, Va., and has a presence in more than 50 countries.

More than 200,000 children around the world are born each year with a facial deformity, and a cleft lip surgery to repair it can take as little as 45 minutes.

The organization sponsors international medical missions, in which half or more of the doctors are from the United States, and so-called local missions that are run by doctors in their home countries. Last year, there were more than 170 missions, said spokesman Scott Vooss. He said Operation Smile is working to increase local missions because they are more sustainable.

For more information, go to www.operationsmile.org.