District 9 is So Fine — Colorado ASDA

by Cassidy Bummer

ASDA’s District 9 meeting was on in full force January 10-13 at the YMCA of the Rockies near Granby, CO. Students from Colorado and three Texas schools, along with a couple of visitors from Alabama, came together to network and attend a series of exceptional presentations from different professionals and sponsors. The weekend began with dinner, snow tubing, and ice skating sponsored by Pacific Dental. Many students that were not used to the cold, and disappointingly some that were, did not make it very long in the evening mountain temperatures. For those that toughed it out, relaxing rides down quickly turned into competitive races with Colorado’s own Jake Holtzmann coming out as the undeniable snow tubing champ.

The next morning, our presentation series was kicked off with a visit from the Aurora PD. Officer Nghiem shared her story of the challenges that came with being a five-foot tall woman making her way and proving herself in a male-dominated field. She joked about sharing a lot of the same clients with us by showing pictures of the “meth-mouth” that she deals with on a daily basis, causing a good laugh in the room. We even learned how to get out of a chokehold by popular demand as she wrapped up. After a day full of intriguing presentations, Heartland Dental sponsored a bowling night with appetizers, drinks, and pizza for all dental students. Obviously, not all dental students are bowling prodigies as finishing scores varied from a solid 32 to a 220.

The majority of Sunday was a free day that students took full advantage of by going skiing at Winter Park, snowshoeing on the YMCA trails, and exploring the surrounding towns. Many people were full of excitement, as this would be their first time experiencing some of the winter activities. Unfortunately, we had one vehicle of these excited students that didn’t have quite as great of morning as the others—calling a tow truck to pull your car out of the ditch isn’t exactly the ideal morning. Luckily, everyone was okay and were good sports about the inevitable jokes they later received.

The session reconvened in the afternoon where students were made aware of generous fundraising options that Oral-B offers for ASDA chapters. Following Oral-B, the national ASDA vice president Khai Huang, presented on dental photography (Dr. DeLapp really missed out on that one). He gave pointers on what equipment to choose and used a student volunteer to show us how to take the beautiful pictures that we all admire from his Instagram page. The presentation series was wrapped up with an informational session on occurrence vs claims-made malpractice insurance policies by the session’s largest sponsor, MedPro. A pizza social followed as an opportunity to mingle with fellow students and sponsors.

Many Colorado students returned for classes on Monday, but a majority of the group stayed to get in an extra day of skiing and other mountain activities. Overall, the committee for putting on this year’s district meeting did an incredible job at putting on a fun and successful session.

About the Author

Cassidy Bummer is a second-year student at the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine. She grew up in rural Montana before attending college at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA. Cassidy’s passion as a future dentist is to provide quality and accessible dentistry to the underserved communities of Northeastern Montana. In her free time, she enjoys fishing, hunting, traveling, hiking, and discovering new breweries.