Virginia Smiles Honors Kyle Speers with College Scholarship

Eastern Mennonite University Student Awarded Virginia Smiles College Scholarship

FAIRFAX, VA--The members of the Board of Directors of Virginia Smiles are proud to announce that Kyle Speers, who is in his first year at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, has earned the 2008 Virginia Smiles College Scholarship. Speers was presented with the $1,000 award at the 2008 Virginia Smiles Family Picnic, which was held at Nottoway Park in Vienna.

Each year, Virginia Smiles awards a $1,000 college scholarship to a Virginia student who was born with a cleft lip or cleft palate, and provides a message of hope and encouragement to other families of children born with a cleft.

Speers, who lives in Midlothian with his family, was born with an incomplete bilateral cleft lip, and a unilateral cleft of the hard and soft palate. He has been cared for by the Center for Facial Reconstruction in Richmond, under the direction of Plastic Surgeon Isaac Wornam, M.D.

Speers has served as a mentor to younger students preparing for the same type of surgeries he has undergone, and has "always known how important it is to reach out and give back to my community," he explained in his essay. Speers finds it to be "such a great feeling" to "encourage others to overcome challenges."

As part of the requirements for the scholarship, Speers completed a 500 word essay describing why he deserved to be awarded the Virginia Smiles College Scholarship.

Speers received the award, and spoke directly to families of children born with cleft lip and/or cleft palate, and other guests, highlighting the accomplishments of his athletic and academic experiences and how he overcame the challenges of being born with a cleft lip/cleft palate and scheduling repair surgeries around tournaments and exams.

"The boys just loved talking with Kyle," said Virginia Smiles mom Paula Miller, mom to Michael born with a cleft lip and palate. "They were all engaged at Kyle’s words, and Kyle was a great role model of support for the young boys at the picnic, most of who were preparing for bone graft surgery."

Virginia Smiles is a non-profit organization, founded in 2002, that provides an essential link between families of children who were born with a cleft lip and/or cleft palate and the provider community that serves these children. Virginia Smiles provides education, information, and support to families of children who were born with a cleft, and serves as a resource to providers in the medical community who treat those who were born with a cleft.

Previous Virginia Smiles Scholarship Recipients:

2023: Rose Perkins from Abingdon, VA
2022: Benjamin Ray Rogers from Verona, VA
2021: Grace Hopkins Davenport from Midlothian, VA
2020: Lia Peach
2019: Jenna Lambert
2018: Jessica Elise Miller from King George, VA
2017: No award
2016: Curtis Bishop, George Mason University
2015: Kulie Nabers, Asbury University
2014: David Rieth, University of Mary Washington
2013: Michael Cox Jr, James Madison University and Anna Grishaw, Sewanee University
2012: Sam Rosen, Bowling Green state University
2011: John Mahaney, Shenandoah University
2010: No award
2009: Josh Duncan, Virginia Community College Transfer Program
2008: Kyle Speers, Eastern Mennonite University
2007: Maria Summers, Randolph Macon College
2006: Steven Richard Day, Virginia Polytech Institute
2005: Katie Higgins, Blue Ridge Community College Transfer Program

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