UPDATE:
The Operation Smile event scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 25 has been postponed until 2024.
ORIGINAL:
Michael Williams-Stark will be speaking in Williams Lake Tuesday, Oct. 24 to raise awareness for Operation Smile Canada.
A comedian, educator and activist, Williams-Stark is a community engagement specialist with Operation Smile Canada and founder of Making Faces, a non-profit society that helps children with facial differences and supports anti-bullying initiatives.
An international charity, Operation Smile raises funds to pay for needed reconstructive surgery for children born with cleft lip, cleft palate or facial conditions.
Without the surgery some children will have difficulty speaking, dental problems, ear infections, hearing loss, difficulty eating and swallowing, which can lead to starvation.
Williams-Stark was born in New Westminster in the 1950s with the most severe cleft lip and palate case on record in British Columbia at the time.
“Nobody ever gave me a trophy, but that is why I was told,” he said, noting he had about 13 or 14 surgeries if you include implants, dental surgery and implanting.
More surgeries could be done for him, however, he is “quite” happy with the way he is.
Despite his rough start, he said he leaned toward comedy and music growing up.
“I could mimic when I was a kid, despite my voice.”
After high school he attended the Douglas College Theatre Program.
With surgery, his voice improved, and he moved to Toronto to do improv comedy workshops at The Second City in 1984. Eventually he started his own group and accumulated many different voices which he put on a tape.
He was picked up by an agency and ended up doing voices for cartoon shows such as Super Mario Bros., Beetlejuice and Rupert Bear.
Along the way he realized comedy was a great tool for working with children that have facial differences.
“We don’t like to make contact or letting people in. We don’t like to use our voices because they are often distorted. Comedy is a fun way to acquire those skills because you cannot do sketch comedy without eye contact or using your voice.”
Fun, he added, is the most important teaching tool.
“I also teach public speaking workshops. A lot of people are afraid to speak publicly but see if I can do it anybody can do it. I think I lead by example.”
Williams Lake Operation Smile invites everyone to Williams-Spark’s talk on Tuesday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. in room 1308 at the Thompson Rivers University Williams Lake Campus.
Locally volunteers raise money through jam sales every year and said the public can assist by purchasing the jams and jellies, donating financially, volunteering to make jams, donating jars or sugar or picking or donating fruit.
The cost for each surgery is about $240 for a child who has no other way of accessing the surgery.
Operation Smile stays with the children for life, Williams-Spark said.
“We take care of dental needs, psychological needs, speech therapy or nutritional education. It’s fantastic. The doctors, nurses, social workers, and what-have-you all volunteer. It’s a great organization. I was very happy when they called me to come and work with them and am very proud to be with them.”
Anyone wanting information can call Bel Hume at 250-398-8740.
READ MORE: Goodies for Operation Smile
READ MORE: Operation Smile fundraiser a go
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