Nani Browne always found a way to allow her daughters to achieve their dreams and now the three young women want to find a way put a bright new smile on their mother's face.
NoeLani, Tiare and KeiLani Jung have started a crowd funding campaign to help their mother pay for needed dental care she can't otherwise afford. Through a multimedia campaign, complete with a YouTube video and website, the trio are hoping to raise $20,000 so Nani can get old crowns replaced, implants for missing teeth and other restorative and preventative dental care.
They've called the fundraising drive The Tooth Fairy Campaign.
"Our mom, when we were little kids, taught us the basics of brushing and flossing our teeth and made sure that we had all of the essential dental and orthodontic care," Tiare said. "Now that she needs that support without having dental coverage herself we felt why not play that role of tooth fairy and invite other people to be tooth fairies as well."
Nani was a single mother for most of the sisters childhood after a divorce and although money wasn't plentiful she found creative ways to give NoeLani, Tiare and KeiLani a chance to explore and excel in their extracurricular endeavors.
For instance when her daughters wanted to take dance lessons, Nani helped pay the fees by cleaning the dance studio.
"We spent at least four nights a week cleaning the dance studio to pay for my classes," KeiLani said. "She would help sew costumes for me but also for other kids in my classes so that she could pay for my costumes."
In NoeLani's case, Nani was actively involved in all the fundraising efforts for her budding musical career, including for trips overseas.
"Not only has she been supporting us throughout all these years and making all these opportunities possible, also for other students she was always there for anyone who was needing some sort of support," NoeLani said.
Tiare has long been active in social justice campaigns and said her mom has always encouraged and helped with everything from putting up posters to promote events to help get prizes for silent auctions.
"She encouraged us to be the artists, dancers, musicians that we've been able to critically explore," KeiLani said. "We thought how can we put something together now in support of her using our creative abilities and this is what we came up with."
Nani was born and raised in Prince George and has worked at various jobs in the community over the years. Her three daughters are all graduates of Duchess Park secondary school and have gone on to post secondary education. KeiLani and Tiare have both moved to the Lower Mainland to pursue their education and careers while NoeLani is completing her first year at UNBC but is hoping to get into a music program at Capilano University in North Vancouver.
Nani always emphasized the family's Polynesian ancestry and passed down traditional dances to her daughters something the three sisters still value. In the coming months they're hoping to launch their own Polynesian dance and entertainment company in Vancouver.
Since Nani didn't have her own dental coverage, she focused on spending money to make sure her children's care was paid for but wasn't able to keep up with her own advanced care needs.
"The reason why there is so much work that has accumulated is because for the past six to eight years she's really been prioritizing our dental needs and hasn't been able to afford getting all of her regular care," Tiare said. "Now we're trying to fill that gap and make sure that her health is taken care of again."
KeiLani emphasized that Nani has always practiced good oral hygiene like brushing and flossing despite not always being able to afford professional dental care.
"She's done as much in her own power to maintain her own dental health," she said.
Through their Indiegogo crowd funding campaign, the sisters are appealing to the value of family and their mother's commitment to community involvement to convince people - both friends and strangers - to donate to the cause.
"Everyone who has been lucky enough that person in their life to put the magic into their childhood I think can relate to what inspired us to this to give that magic back to our mom," KeiLani said. "She's one of the biggest reasons we can wake up and smile and know that we're pursuing our dreams and we want to be able to watch her smile confidently."
The campaign is off to a slow start. As of Tuesday afternoon only eight per cent of the $20,000 goal has been raised with four weeks to go before the campaign closes.
Information on how to donate is available by visiting http://pgc.cc/1n9MYgl.
