As freshman baseball player Sam Hunt reflects on the past two years educating the community about the importance of dental health, he said the experience has had a profound impact on his life.

“It is a very important issue. I have had friends from basketball teams that have not had proper dental care,” Hunt said. “It’s always important to look nice and that’s one the big reasons I did this, so that kids that otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity could receive this.”

According to founder and board chair of Ready, Set, Smile Adele DellaTorre, the organization is a non-profit that provides preventative dental services and education to children in Minneapolis schools who come from families with low resources.

“We have two components to our program. One is dental services, where we bring preventive services like fluoride treatments, we clean the teeth, sealants, and we try to control the decay as best we can with some atraumatic dental treatments,” DellaTorre said. “Then we also bring the full curriculum, so we go into classrooms and provide education to all the children.”

Hunt said the dental program through Ready, Set, Smile enables students to receive the care they need as often as a regular dentist appointment.

“It provides dental care for otherwise needy kids that don’t necessarily have the funds to get proper dental care,” Hunt said. “They’ll go around to different schools and if the kids sign up for the dental care, it is totally free and they receive it like every six months and it is just like going to the regular dentist.”

According to Hunt, the fundraising for Ready, Set, Smile is just one component of preparations for his upcoming Power Showcase Home Run Derby competition beginning Dec. 26 in Miami, Florida.   

“It’s an international home run derby and it is held at Marlins Park,” Hunt said. “Basically the best players around the country come in and just do a big home run derby, and there is a fundraising component, so I chose (Ready, Set, Smile) to be my fundraising component.”

Freshman Zoe Frank said she admires Hunt’s dedication to bringing awareness to dental health.

“I think that’s really cool,” Frank said. “Nobody has actually ever done something like that in our grade and it’s just cool that he’s actually taking the effort to do it.”

DellaTorre said this year marks the second year of Hunt’s fundraiser for dental health services, which is a requirement for the event Hunt will be participating in.

“Sam is really gifted as a baseball player. The organization that provides this event, you get the invitation and in order to participate, you have to do a fundraiser for a non-profit from your neighborhood, so it connects you to doing good work for your community,” DellaTorre said. “He is just an amazing kid, and he chose Ready Set Smile, so we were just so lucky that he thought of us.”

According to DellaTorre, as part of the fundraising, Hunt was able to give a student who loves baseball an opportunity to be a part of the Ready, Set, Smile program.

“Daunte is just a kid from Ready Set Smile who loves baseball but doesn’t have the opportunity that Sam has to be involved in baseball at that level,” DellaTorre said. “The thing that I loved seeing when Dante and Sam met was how they connected. They’re both boys that are so articulate and bright and are so hopeful about their future.”