On August 25 at 5:30 p.m., FACES: The National Cranio-facial Association will host a unique fundraising opportunity at the Car Barn where the atmosphere will be one of grown-up fun. The evening of the FACES UnMasked event promises boardwalk-style after-work fun with carnival foods, grandstand games for grown-ups and bidding on special handmade masks in the “Fun House” silent auction, whose proceeds will benefit FACES.
The mask auction will be the real event of the evening, says Lynne Mayfield, president of FACES. “We have distributed 100 masks, about half of them to local artists, the other half to local celebrities, national celebrities, sports figures and others. The masks are the main thing. Go around and play some games and bid on some masks and you can have an evening of fun without getting a babysitter for hours and be home at a decent hour,” Mayfield says.
FACES teamed up with the Association for Visual Arts in getting the call out to artists to contribute their talents to the masks. All the masks are being sent to the AVA location on Frasier Avenue, where they will have an exhibit in their gallery from August 12 to 24. This will provide a great sample for what will be available at the FACES UnMasked event, Mayfield says. This event is the first of its kind for the organization, and hopefully an annual success. Mayfield says this event works well with what FACES does because the organization works mostly with children who are born with craniofacial anomalies or people who because of wreck, trauma, or disease have to have their faces rebuilt. The concept of the FACES UnMasked event brings together the perfect blend of art, entertainment and philanthropy to represent FACES, she says.
The event will also allow adults to have fun they sometimes miss out on as grown-ups.
“When we take our kids to school carnivals, we are sometimes envious because they get to play all the games and we don’t,” Mayfield laughs. “Why not have this same atmosphere for our fundraising event? We are going to have such games as toss a ring on a wine bottle to win a bottle of wine or spin the wheel and win dinner for two somewhere.”
FACES services assist families each year with travel away from home to specialized craniofacial medical centers for life-changing surgeries. In many cases, this is a lifelong journey for these families, as a child born with a severe craniofacial disorder often requires surgeries until young adulthood before their face and skull is completely rebuilt, says Mayfield. Many children with craniofacial anomalies live with fear and uncertainty, and oftentimes they feel as though they live behind a mask, she says. In 1969, FACES was founded (and continues to be headquartered) in Chattanooga originally as The Debbie Fox Foundation.
Debbie Fox was a little girl born in Soddy Daisy with no face. Her teacher and school superintendent got together to raise money to help send Fox and her family to the first craniofacial center in the U.S. in Baltimore. Word of Fox’s successful surgery spread, and the teacher and superintendent started getting calls from other parents who wanted help in getting to Baltimore.
Through the years, a number of craniofacial centers have opened across the country in-cluding one in Chattanooga, and FACES continues to help children get to whichever center they need to go to. Another mission of FACES is getting good lay friendly information about these rare birth defects out to the public. “One in 600 babies is born with some type of craniofacial disorder… and it’s very hard to find good information, especially right after your baby is born,” Mayfield says.
Over the years, FACES has put their information pamphlets in every labor and delivery unit in the U.S., over 3,360 units.
“Hopefully, when a baby is born anywhere in the U.S. with a craniofacial anomaly, the first number that they are given is that of FACES and our little office on McCallie Avenue with our staff of two where we literally serve the country,” Mayfield says. FACES works with 15,000 families a year by providing information and counseling for those who are affected by craniofacial anomalies. Mayfield says the money from the FACES UnMasked event and auction will go to toward the financial assistance they provide for children to get to a craniofacial center of their choice.
In addition to travel expenses and financial and moral support for surgery, FACES has helped over 25,000 individuals across the country with support networks, information packets on 37 different craniofacial disorders, educational programs in the community and numerous resources through www.faces-cranio.org. Mayfield says many comment that her job must be a sad one, working with these children, but she says it is a very wonderful job.
“If you can help these families get the medical attention they need, their children can grow up to be like everyone else,” she says. “I think it’s a very promising and hopeful job. What would be sad is if you thought that there was no FACES organization to help.”
For tickets to the FACES UnMasked event or to learn how to help the organization with volunteer hours, visit www.faces-cranio.org.