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Special send off for Operation Smile nurse

After 36 years of service, a nurse for the non-profit Operation Smile received a special send-off.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) — After 36 years of service, Operation Smile held a special send-off for Cindi Raglin.

Operation Smile is a non-profit organization that provides free surgeries for children facial deformities.

In 1997, a colleague at CHKD told Raglin about the children’s medical charity. Within a year, Raglin became a volunteer with the organization and set out on her first medical mission to the Philippines as a pre-post nurse.

“It’s nothing for me to go on a mission and turn around and come here for a couple of days and then go back out on a mission. I love going out on missions because of the children and the families. They are the ones that are the special people. They are the ones that drive what we are doing and why we are there,” said Raglin.

Raglin went on 35 international medical missions and impacted nearly 3,500 young patients.

Raglin told 13News Now when she met the Dalai Lama and asked him if he had one wish what that would be.

“He said I would ensure that every child would have an education. Through education comes understanding, comes tolerance and he said through all of this comes world peace. I totally believe that,” said Raglin.

After being a volunteer nurse with Operation Smile for 13 years, Raglin was hired in 2010 and served as the Senior Director of Quality Assurance.

Now, 36 years after becoming a nurse, Raglin is retiring. Her friend of 21 years, Ruben Ayala, said Raglin was instrumental in him pursuing a career in medicine.

“It’s really hard to express how a single individual can have such an impact. Cindi is that person that embodies what’s the best in humanity. She has been a friend, she has been a supporter and an ongoing source of inspiration,” said Ayala.

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