Ten years on, and Jonathan Levine along with his wife, Stacey Levine, and a full team of dental professionals, under the auspices of their Glo Good Foundation, were on their 8th mission to Eleuthera, from January 18th to 21st, 2025, providing a wide range of free dental services, from within St. Gregory’s Catholic Church Hall, located in the center of Gregory Town in Central Eleuthera.
Glo Good’s transformative journey for the Levines began with a simple mission: to provide free dental and medical care to underserved populations. This initiative, spearheaded by Jonathan Levine and his wife Stacey, emerged from their experiences in Rwanda, where they treated women and children affected by genocide. Inspired by their work, longtime Eleuthera resident, and renowned international musician Lenny Kravitz, who is both a client and a friend, approached Jonathan in his dental practice, asking if they could extend their services to his community in the Bahamas. This marked the inception of a series of missions that now look to evolve into a full-fledged clinic, providing expanded dental services in 2025, for longer periods of time to residents in Eleuthera.
Over the years, the clinic has grown significantly. Initially, it operated sporadically, but with the support of generous donations, including state-of-the-art dental equipment from Henry Schein, it has transformed into a 14-chair facility equipped with advanced technology. The clinic now offers a range of services, from routine cleanings to complex procedures like crowns and dentures, all facilitated by a team of skilled technicians and volunteers, as a result of collaboration with top dental schools and professionals from around the world, creating a high-performance team focused on improving community health.
The impact of the initiative has been palpable. During this most recent dental clinic mission, they treated hundreds of patients – rounding out at approximately 450 people, performing thousands of procedures, and witnessing remarkable improvements in the community’s oral health. People from throughout Eleuthera took advantage of the clinic, receiving scans, cleanings, root canals, fillings, crowns, extractions, as well as cutting edge denture services – with CAD/CAM systems and 3D printing lab technology on-site, producing completed dentures within a few hours. The clinic has adopted a digital workflow for dental procedures, allowing for the scanning, designing, and 3D printing of prostheses, significantly reducing the time required for fabrication. “What took us a day to do one or two, like one whole mouth, now we do 6 in an hour and a half,” said Jonathan.
Children, in particular, Stacey Levine shared, have shown significant progress, with fewer needing urgent care each year. The initiative has treated approximately 650 children in schools, providing essential dental care and education on oral health – aimed at instilling healthy habits in children to prevent future dental issues. The mission also emphasizes nutrition education, recognizing the link between diet and health issues prevalent in the community, such as hypertension and diabetes.
Looking to the future, the vision, shared Stacey, is to establish a year-round clinic, with a holistic healthcare approach, that not only addresses dental needs but also incorporates medical care, nutrition, and education. This includes the introduction of nutrition programs to tackle food-related health issues. Plans are underway to transform the clinic into a full medical and dental facility, addressing various health issues such as diabetes and hypertension, alongside dental care – including the introduction of implant procedures and ongoing medical support.
“We’re trying to keep the the clinic open, if not year round, at least for 2025 for it to be open four or five times in the year. We are coming back in April. We’re going to continue our medical, our dental clinic and we’re bringing in new medical equipment for it with the help of others,” said Stacey, about the planned expansion of both, services and service times in 2025.
Lenny Kravitz, commenting on what the dental clinic initiative has meant to him over the past ten years, shared, “What it’s meant is everything. This is my home. The Bahamian people are my people. My mother was Bahamian, my grandfather’s from Inagua. I grew up going to Nassau twice a year, spending my summers and winters there. I came to Gregory Town about 39 years ago. One of my cousins, Deanna Holland, was the nurse of this town. I’ve known her since I was born. She used to babysit me in Nassau. She came here to be the nurse of Gregory Town and from the day I got on the mail boat from Nassau and pulled into Hatchet Bay, I knew this was my home and I’ve been here ever since. My whole world and my life is centered here, so it makes perfect sense that this is all going down and this is just the beginning. But as you know, it all started from me seeing a necessity here. They [The Levine family] happen to be my friends. We realized that we could put this together and it’s been an incredible journey.”
He continued, “I’m just so proud that this has continued and all these people are, here and put all their energy and love and compassion and education into this… And it makes me feel so good to see my people being taken care of. There’s more to come. The whole vision is a is a free standing Medical Center that will be free to the people. That’s amazing. And it’s coming. You know, every year this gets bigger, better, more technology. And so we’re we’re moving.”
Lenny, who has taken time out during each clinic mission to personally interact with community members being assisted, shared, “It’s wonderful to see the transformations… They’ve done such an amazing job over the years. And the friendships that have been made and the trust, the respect of how you also give care. There are different ways to come and help people. How do I put this? You can make people feel small when you help them, or you can make them feel respected and bring them up. And the best way I can describe that is a woman who made a statement once that I thought really set it straight, saying ‘I feel that I paid top dollar for the service I was given’… What I see my friends here and all of us getting is more than is being given. Because when you’re in a position of greatness, like all of these people, you know, there’s the verse – ‘To whom much is given, much is expected’, right? So they’re giving this. And what they’re getting back is the gratitude, the humanity. There’s an exchange here going on that’s really wonderful to see. So as this lady said, ‘I feel I paid my top dollar to get this, because you made me feel as though I paid for it’. It’s just great.”
