146TH ANNUAL SESSION
Dr . Gary Davis Honored with
PDA PUBLIC SERVICE AWARD
Dr . R . Donald Hoffman presented the PDA Public Service Award to Dr . Gary Davis on April 26 during the Second Meeting of the House of Delegates .
The recipient of our Public Service Award is Dr . Gary Davis . Dr . Davis has been a driving force in bringing oral health care to the indigent and underserved both in his community in Cumberland County and lands far away . He has seen up close the barriers faced , the difficult living conditions and the lack of living necessities that the average person takes for granted . All these years of dedicated service built up to the monumental role he took as general chair of the first MOM-n-PA project . For his unwavering commitment and inspiring leadership that brings quality oral health care to those most in need , Pennsylvania Dental Association is pleased to honor Dr . Davis with the 2014 Public Service Award .
Dr . Davis ’ remarks :
Thank you . I am humbled and honored to be given this prestigious award . My deepest thanks to the selection committee , the PDA and the Fifth District , which nominated me .
I share this award with all those who have been my mentors , advisors , partners and friends along this journey . I especially want to thank my wife Marie and my kids – Zach , Elizabeth , and Rebecca – who put up with me spending hours upon hours at meetings and on the computer and who have always supported my passion to help those less fortunate than us .
My journey with dental mission work began almost as soon as I joined organized dentistry . It was Mike Cerveris and Bob Zimmerman at my local – the Cumberland Valley Dental Society – who talked me into working at our annual Migrant Worker Clinic at Mike ’ s office . It was an eye opener for such a young dentist to see just how much need there was in our back yards . I was hooked . Thank you Mike and thanks to my colleagues at the CVDS .
And after doing this for a few years several of my colleagues in the Fifth District prodded me to do mission work in a foreign country . People like Bill Spruill and Jack Hankle encouraged me to follow my
passion . My experience treating hundreds of children , many of whom are orphans , changed me and changed my appreciation for living in the United States . My experience with Ecuadent was not always easy ( cold water for showers , sometimes no water , sometimes we would have power , sometimes we would not , earthquakes , lots of bugs , tough working conditions , lots of potholes on long military bus rides in the Andes Mountains , scorpions , and much more ) but it is an experience I will never forget and one that I will continue to do as long as people let me ! Thank you to those who have worked beside me at Ecuadent and other missions - Marie , Joe Kohler , Bill Spruill , and Lillian Wong .
And of course , our most recent adventure with missions is MOM-n-PA . If it was not for the leaders we have here at the PDA House , MOM-n-PA would not be a reality . MOM-n-PA is a great mission because people like Bernie Dishler , Tommy Gamba , Pete Carroll , Julie Barna , Bruce Terry and Bill Spruill believed that it was the right thing to do and that we could do it . It was a dream of ours and although
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