CrossOver is blessed to have two 26-year volunteers in our dental clinic: Dr. Rob Cox, who was featured in last week’s Sunday Snapshot, and Dr. Steve Todd.
Dr. Todd had a 21-year career in the Army before going into private practice. When he left the Army, he knew he wanted to find some other way to serve the community. After he met CrossOver’s dental program manager at a meeting of the Richmond Dental Society in 1995, he came in for a tour. “I liked what I saw,” he remembers, and he started volunteering soon after.
Dr. Todd appreciates the opportunity to serve. “There’s a tremendous need out there,” he says. “I feel is it my mission to give back.”
“Dr. Todd serves with humility and dedication,” says Kerri Reed, CrossOver’s dental program manager. “He treats every CrossOver patient like a patient in his private practice.” Dr. Todd has also served as a mentor, Kerri adds, to her and the CrossOver staff as well as to many volunteers and students.
Haileigh Gofton is one of Dr. Todd’s mentees. She began shadowing at Dr. Todd’s dental practice in the summer of 2018. She was initially interested in becoming a hygienist, but by the end of her first week, “I made a small career change,” Haileigh says. “I still loved hygiene, but I fell in love with the whole field of dentistry.”
Dr. Todd told Haileigh about CrossOver, and she began accompanying him to his weekly volunteer shifts. “Dr. Todd and CrossOver introduced me to a wonderful perspective of dentistry—the community aspect and the outreach for people who might not otherwise have the care that they need,” Haileigh says.
This fall, Haileigh is headed to VCU School of Dentistry. And, thanks to Dr. Todd’s influence, she’s doing it through the Army’s Health Professions Scholarship Program. On Friday, March 5, Dr. Todd attended Haileigh’s commissioning, where she was sworn in as a second lieutenant. The Army will provide her with a scholarship to dental school, and she will serve as an Army dentist for at least four years upon graduation.
No one in Haileigh’s family has served in the military or worked in the dental field. “I can say with a certain sense of confidence that I would not be where I am today without his guidance,” Haileigh says. “Dr. Todd is just an incredible mentor.”
And Haileigh is grateful that Dr. Todd introduced her to CrossOver that first week back in 2018. “I will continue to talk about CrossOver, truly, for the rest of my life.”
To learn more about volunteering at CrossOver, visit https://www.crossoverministry.org/volunteer/ or email volunteers@crossoverministry.org.
In an effort to be mindful of our environmental impact, we are not sending summaries of 2020 donations to all of our donors. However, if you’d like one, we are happy to provide it. To request a list of your 2020 gifts to CrossOver, please email Misti at mprocious@crossoverministry.org. Thank you, as always, for your support of compassionate healthcare!