Providence, RI – Young patients at the Samuels Sinclair Dental Center in Providence now can make a grand entrance for their appointments thanks to the generosity of the Newport Car Museum, located in Portsmouth.
On Monday, November 26, museum representatives made a special visit to the center, donating a mini electric car (a pink Henes Broon F830) so its patients can ‘drive’ themselves to an exam room for their appointment. During the presentation of the car, Celia Furtado, age 8, of Cranston, and a longtime patient of the dental center, was all smiles as the first to sit behind the wheel.
“Much like going to the hospital, we know a trip to the dentist can lead to nervousness for many children,” said Margaret M. Van Bree, MHA, DrPH, president of Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital. “That our dental center now has this amazing ride-on vehicle available to patients will no doubt result in wide smiles and less anxiety as kids drive down its hallways. We are beyond grateful to the Newport Car Museum for both its generosity and understanding the extras that make a big difference for patients.”
The November donation is the second battery-operated vehicle gifted by the museum this fall to help kids. In September, the Newport Car Museum donated a red mini electric car to Hasbro Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Rehabilitation Center. Both cars feature an integrated tablet PC smart system.
“We are fortunate to have Hasbro Children’s Hospital in our state and we wanted to give back in appreciation of all they do for our community, including providing dental services for so many families,” said Newport Car Museum’s Vincent Moretti. “When people visit the Newport Car Museum, they put aside whatever is happening in their lives to spend time enjoying the art of the car. We wanted to foster that same feeling in kids – that with the mini electric cars, they’d be thinking about driving, instead of being at the dentist’s office or in the hospital.”
The electric ride-on vehicles were purchased to bring smiles to children from funds raised through the museum’s Fast Five raffle event. Leading up to its September showing of Fast Five – the fifth installment in The Fast and the Furious movie series – the museum sold raffle tickets to members of the community for a chance to ride to lunch with the museum founders in the Ford GT40 used in the film’s famous train heist scene. The blue Ford muscle car is a recent addition to the museum’s impressive collection.
A program of Rhode Island Hospital and founded in 1931, the Samuels Sinclair Dental Center ensures that children whose parents cannot afford to pay are provided with dental care. In addition to providing dental care to children, the center is the primary dental provider for patients of all ages with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities in the region. It is also one of the first in the country to provide comprehensive dental care within a hospital setting, seeing dental referrals from various clinics and the emergency room.
