Two Newport High School brothers handed out 6,880 free dental kits to elementary students across Washington during the 2025-26 school year, and they're aiming to more than triple that number nationwide during the 2026-27 school year.

Mikey Kang, a senior and student body president, and his brother Marcus, a junior on the golf team, founded the Bright Start Initiative out of a realization rooted in their own family. Both are children of dentists.

"As the children of dentists, we've always had access to oral healthcare resources and education," the brothers told Northwest Asian Weekly. "As we've grown older and noticed that not everyone has this same access, we knew we needed to do something to help out."

Each kit contains a toothbrush, toothpaste and dental floss. Bright Start, a registered 501(c)(3) based in Bellevue, also sends volunteers into schools to deliver oral health presentations and publishes educational materials online in 18 languages, including Korean, Mandarin, Cambodian, Japanese and Vietnamese.

The multilingual focus is personal. Much of the Kang family are first-generation immigrants from Korea, and the brothers said they understood the language barrier many families face when trying to learn about dental care at home.

Reaching beyond schools

Through a partnership with Project Umbrella, Bright Start donates roughly 300 dental kits per month to unhoused people in Seattle, Austin, New York City and Phoenix. Corporate partners Delta Dental of Washington and Henry Schein Cares, along with local dentists, fund the supplies.

Federal Way Public Schools Superintendent Dani Pfeiffer praised the effort in a written statement, noting that the multilingual resources make the kits more accessible to the diverse families the district serves.

One parent whose child received a kit told Northwest Asian Weekly that before the donation, she had been unable to supply her daughter with a new toothbrush for over two years.

What's next

Bright Start's goal for the 2026-27 school year is 25,000 kits distributed nationwide. To get there, the brothers recently launched a Student Leader Program inviting students across the country to volunteer as ambassadors, fundraisers and marketing interns. The program is a direct response to a challenge they've encountered: many schools simply don't respond to offers of free dental kits.

Mikey balances the nonprofit alongside DECA, golf and wrestling. Marcus competes in junior golf tournaments around the country. Both manage Bright Start's operations while carrying full course loads at Newport, which enrolls about 1,850 students in the Bellevue School District.

Interested students or schools can reach Bright Start at brightstartinitiative.org.