Alliance for Smiles (AfS), founded in October 2024 by six Rotarians from the Rotary Club of San Francisco, held its 21st Night of Smiles Anniversary Gala on May 3, 2025 at the Hotel Nikko. The Gala was a beautiful, festive, fun, and meaningful celebration of life and tranformation and honored the impact of AfS on the children and communities it serves. This swanky, speakeasy-themed Event also recognized the selfless volunteers, donors, and supporters who make the work of AfS possible and commemorated over two decades of providing thousands of life-changing surgeries to children with cleft lips and palates in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America, as well as building local capacity by providing training and equipment to local medical teams. The audience included Rotarians from our Club, from across the Bay Area, and from the East Coast as well as friends and family members of Rotarians.
Rotarians who helped at the Gala:
- Our wonderful Past President and PDG Laine Hendricks who absolutely shone as Master of Ceremonies, with her leadership, wit, and dress sparkling as she led the guests through a spectacular evening.
- AfS Co-Founder and Past President Anita Stangl.
- AfS Co-Founder and Past President Jim Patrick.
- AfS Board Chair Karl Wustrack.
- AfS Executive Director Jessica Hansen.
- AfS Director of Operations Paul Vazquez.
- President Elect Frank Yoke.
- Club Members Maureen O'Shea and Margaret Miley who helped to plan and execute the Event as part of the AfS Gala Committee and even operated the "Wine Wall" with the gracious help of Club Member Nancy Graydon.
- Club Members Rachel Donovan and Jeff Yih who led an incredible dance group and performance, which got everyone onto the dance floor to close out the night in style.
PDG Laine Hendricks, Karl Wustrack, Jessica Hansen, Karl's family, Anita Stangl, Jo Patrick, and Jim Patrick
Honorees
The Honorees were:
The Honorees were:
- Past President Mary Liu who received the Distinguished Service Award for all that she has done on her journey from cleft patient to global advocate and mission leader for cleft surgical missions.
- Club Member Benjamin Lam who received the John Uth Memorial Award for Significant Financial Support. Benjamin now serves as Vice Chair of the AfS Board.
- Darrell Daughery who received the Volunteer of the Year Award.
- Dr. Chih-Chen Fang who received the Children's Champion Award posthumously.
Mary Liu, Benjamin Lam, and Karl Wustrack
AfS also thanks Robert Hunter of Hunter Events for helping to execute this Event flawlessly and professional photographer Scott Saraceno who photographed this entire Event.
The evening included everything from fun raffle prizes, silent and live auctions, fabulous guest speakers and musical performances, an epic Charleston dance battle, and much more — all to celebrate and reflect on the incredible impact of the AfS community and to raise funds for even more life-changing work. Most notable was that the evening highlighted the beautiful partnership and impact that Rotary and AfS have and will continue to have on the lives and smiles both here and abroad.
More photos of the event are available here.