Fish Taco Sale This Friday, Oct. 16

By Matt Marinkovich, Fish For Teeth

Fish for Teeth is con­tin­u­ing its tooth-fix­ing mis­sion with a fish taco fundrais­er from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Fri­day, Oct. 16,  at the San Juan Island Com­mu­ni­ty Theatre.

An $8 sug­gest­ed dona­tion lands you a full-on bur­ri­to-sized “taco,” filled with sus­tain­ably-har­vest­ed Wash­ing­ton Coastal Rock­fish, fresh organ­ic sal­sa, Tillam­ook cheese, zesty greens, and a squeeze of lime. Absolute­ly delicious.

Even if Covid-19 shuts every­thing down com­plete­ly, people’s teeth still need fix­ing. Fish for Teeth is con­tin­u­ing its com­mit­ment to pro­vide den­tal care for those who can­not oth­er­wise afford it.

The van came at the begin­ning of Octo­ber on reduced capac­i­ty due to Covid con­cerns, and it will come again in Jan­u­ary. Only “emer­gency” cas­es are being seen, as only one den­tal chair is allowed to be occu­pied dur­ing the pandemic.

But the health depart­ment says fish tacos get the all clear! An addi­tion­al tent will be added to the prep sta­tion, so there’s more room between elbows of the vol­un­teers. Of course, every­one will be wear­ing a mask, along with all the oth­er stan­dard health depart­ment pre­cau­tions relat­ed to food ser­vice (like good hand-wash­ing practices).

Fish for Teeth brought the Med­ical Teams Inter­na­tion­al Mobile Den­tal Van to San Juan Island for three two-day clin­ics in 2020 (the May clin­ic was can­celed due to Covid).

Fish for Teeth has no restric­tions on income para­me­ters, so “in the mid­dle” fam­i­lies or indi­vid­u­als who are liv­ing with den­tal pain and no dis­pos­able income to pay for den­tal care, have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to live with­out den­tal pain, and even sim­ply get pre­ven­tive care (teeth cleanings).

Fish for Teeth receives no gov­ern­ment fund­ing what­so­ev­er, nor does it accept fund­ing from foun­da­tions that require income para­me­ters for ser­vices provided.

Fish tacos are Fish for Teeth’s only direct­ed fundrais­er; the rest of the fund­ing is made up of indi­vid­ual con­tri­bu­tions from car­ing peo­ple from our com­mu­ni­ty. Even though our tooth-fix­ing dol­lar is not going as far because of Covid, we are still com­mit­ted to help­ing peo­ple with den­tal pain who have no oth­er option to get their teeth fixed.

If you val­ue the efforts of Fish for Teeth and would like to lend finan­cial sup­port, please donate at fishforteeth.com, mail a check to PO Box 2084 Fri­day Har­bor 98250, or drop off a check at the Joyce L. Sobel Fam­i­ly Resource Cen­ter or the San Juan Coun­ty Health and Human Ser­vices office, behind the post office.

You can also vol­un­teer your time in the taco-mak­ing or the den­tal clin­ic depart­ments. The eas­i­est way to help is by sim­ply enjoy­ing a deli­cious fish taco this Friday!

Thank you.

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