Jane Kaczmarek

“Supporting The Smile Train’s work is such a tangible way to know you’re making a difference in a child’s life. Thank you to The Smile Train for giving us the opportunity to make a life by giving a life.”

Jane Kaczmarek

Actor

Jane Kaczmarek is an extraordinary actress who is best known for playing the mom on the TV series Malcolm in the Middle for which she is a three-time Golden Globe and seven-time Emmy Award nominee.

She is also extremely generous and charitable.

I met her in a coffee shop in Los Angeles about 15 years ago. The purpose of the trip was to thank her for all the generous donations she had given to Smile Train.

But when we met, she made such an impact on us, she was so passionate about the work we were doing and so charismatic and fun to be around, we decided that we had to find a way to get her more involved.

And we did.

Jane started hosting many of our donor events and then began coming on trips with us to Asia and Africa. Sometimes we would invite her when we were bringing other major donors just because she made the trips so much fun.

Of course, one time it wasn’t that fun when we were sitting motionless in an open safari jeep, 10 yards away from a very large lion in Tanzania, and Jane turned on her iPhone which started playing at full volume, the theme song to the movie, Out of Africa. The lion jumped up and started walking towards us as our unarmed guide screamed, “Turn that $#%@#$ off! You going to get us all killed!!!”

There was never a dull moment with Jane Kaczmarek.

Jane has a huge heart and it didn’t take much to get her to cry.

She would come to a donor dinner and she would cry when we played our opening video – (which Jane had seen a hundred times.)

Then she would cry when we gave the speeches.

Then she would cry when we showed giant photos of our patients on the big screen.

And then, after dinner, she would be mobbed by our donors and she’d cry again as they were all hugging each other. Just like when we would bring her to our hospitals in Asia or Africa, she would hug every little kid she met, every doctor, every nurse.