When Rob Jenkins looks back at photos of himself as a kid, he’s the first to point out everything that was wrong with his teeth.
“They were buck teeth with a wide gap,” he says with a matter-of-fact yet instantly relatable tone to his voice. “One day, I thought it was a good idea to take two quarters and put them together to see if they’d fit. And they did.”
Clearly, Rob needed braces. But his single-parent mom barely had two quarters to rub together. She got pregnant in high school, and left his father before Rob was born. Rob would end up living in eight separate households over three years and attended 11 schools over 12 years. He also had six dads come and go over the next 16 years.
Every step of the way, Rob was teased by classmates who were unmerciful and relentless about his bad teeth.
But when it felt like chaos would continue to rule and the world would never let up, someone finally stepped in to help. An anonymous person at a church he visited, whom he’d never met, wanted to give him the gift of braces.
“They apparently said, ‘I’m going to put braces on that kid.’ I couldn’t believe someone I didn’t know cared about me,” Rob said. He received his new braces when he was 11, and to say they changed his life would be an understatement. Not only did his self-confidence improve, but he went on to receive his undergraduate degree, with honors, at UT Austin, attend the elite law program at UCLA, and has been blessed with a successful 25-year legal career. “That blessing changed everything. For the first time, I suddenly thought I was as good as the others.”
From that moment forward, Rob Jenkins promised that he’d one day pay that blessing forward. And boy, has he ever.
Jenkins launched a 501(c)(3) nonprofit called Eternal Smiles Foundation in 2024. The Flower Mound-based organization’s mission is to help other single-parent children in need receive the same life-changing support of orthodontic braces—regardless of financial circumstances. From initial consultations and braces to eventual removal, Eternal Smiles works with orthodontists from all over the country to cover the entire process. Along the way, they provide resources and support to help families understand the importance of orthodontic care and oral health so that they can one day pay the gift forward to someone else.
Eternal Smiles is one of the very few organizations out there that donates braces to children, and it is the only one that focuses strictly on single-parent families. The only obligation for those families is a $25 processing fee. Eternal Smiles also doesn’t limit them to specific orthodontists, though they do have a growing list of Aligned Providers for families who don’t have a preferred provider.
Fast-forward to today, just one year later, and Eternal Smiles Foundation has blessed 17 kids with new braces, hence the name “Blessed Kids.” All but two of those kids are from North Texas, but their reach is expanding beyond their wildest dreams with applications from families nationwide.
Rob and his team hope to end the year with 20 kids receiving braces. The goal is to be at 50 more by the end of 2026.
“It’s not just about straight teeth,” said Rob, now 59. “It’s about straightening paths to brighter futures.”
That last statement couldn’t be more accurate. Misaligned teeth can lead to concerns like chewing issues, speech impediments, head, neck, and jaw pain, sleep issues, cavities, and various dental diseases. But it’s much more consequential than the physical impact. It can also lead to decreased smiling, isolation, social anxiety, avoiding conversations, and bullying. Straight teeth are essential to physical and mental well-being. Regardless of your age, you benefit in ways that go far beyond appearance.
According to the organization’s website, 78% of children no longer experienced bullying after they finished their orthodontic treatment. Those with straight teeth are also 38% more likely to be perceived as smart and 45% more likely to get a job.
Kerri Smith is confident that will be the case for her son, Deacon. Kerri is the executive director at Eternal Smiles, but before that, she was also a single mom searching for ways to help her son receive braces. What happened next almost felt scripted by God.
“It was 2023, and I was in between jobs,” she said. “The founder of the safe house I’d been working at was Rob’s neighbor. Rob needed an executive assistant to help shore up his day-to-day so he could start what he called ‘this other thing.’ When we met, he spent most of the time talking about this passion project of his, and you could tell how much it meant to him. I was floored because my son was 12 at the time, and he was in the process of writing a letter to a foundation that granted braces to families in need.
“I couldn’t help but think, ‘What are the odds?’ Rob told me in that moment that Deacon would be a recipient, and this was before he’d even created the foundation. I joined the team a year later, but everything that’s happened since has lined up perfectly.”
But wait, there’s more.
“Rob launched the organization at his church, Christian World Church in Richardson,” she said. “We played a video about the foundation and his story. It was only a two-minute video, but a couple of weeks had passed when a guy named Ed Ballard called. He’d seen the video and wanted to learn more, but insisted on speaking to Rob directly. Once the two of them got on the phone, Ed said, ‘My daddy was the one who gave you your braces.’ When Rob asked him for his father’s name, he said, ‘Bibb Ballard.’ He was a local orthodontist and chose to keep his generosity under wraps.”
Dr. Bibb Ballard had passed away in 2007, but the moment Ed said his father’s name, Rob felt the air leave the room. For nearly five decades, he’d carried the mystery of the stranger who changed his life. Now, out of nowhere, he was hearing the name of the man who quietly stepped in and set everything in motion.
“Rob always said he wanted to be the pebble that created the ripples. When he learned Dr. Ballard was the man who helped him all those years ago, he realized Dr. Ballard was the pebble and that he—Rob—was the ripple,” said Carrie Shaffer, Rob’s executive assistant and the board chair/secretary for Eternal Smiles. “He was always so lost, not knowing who this person was, but it was a mission he felt was given to him to complete. Everything has been falling into place ever since.”
Kerri Smith agreed, adding that the real winners are the kids they help.
“You watch and see how excited these kids are to get braces,” she said. “You would think most kids don’t want to get braces, but when they don’t have the resources, it’s a far different reaction. They are excited, and seeing it all unfold is an incredible feeling. The best part is that we want to continue this momentum of generosity. From Day 1, we ask these kids and their parents how they want to pay the blessing forward. We want them to think about that because this blessing should live on—beyond all of us.”
To learn more about the great work being done at the Eternal Smiles Foundation and how you can help, please visit EternalSmiles.org.
