and

Whom did we serve?

Operation Breakthrough, the largest single-site early education child care and social services facility in Missouri, serving over 400 children daily from Kansas City’s urban core. • More than 80 percent of the Operation Breakthrough children come from

families who survive on income of less than $15,000 per year. • Operation Breakthrough’s core mission is to help children in poverty reach their

potential by providing them a safe, loving and educational environment while their parents are working, attending school or job hunting.

• Operation Breakthrough is open 11 hours a day, five days a week, to children ages 6 weeks to 13 years.

• In addition to Head Start educational programming for children ages 0 to 6, and homework help, literacy activities and extra-curriculars for school-age children, Operation Breakthrough also provides children with on-site health and dental care, mental health programming and occupational and speech therapy.

• To empower the children’s families, Operation Breakthrough provides an adult health clinic, adult therapy and support groups, assistance with job and housing searches, case management, a food pantry, a clothing closet and referrals to community resources.

Waddell & Reed has proudly supported Operation Breakthrough in many ways for more than seven years.

For the specific time frame June 1 – November 30, 2013, we have held two independent drives: one is for school supplies for the children with a total of 26 boxes filled with pens, pencils, notebooks, etc.; the other initiative is our annual Thanksgiving Dinner Box drive that provides a turkey and all the Thanksgiving trimmings for more than 475 low-income families.

In August 2013 we also held an internal auction for another 501c3 charity, with many items from that auction donated toward filling backpacks for Operation Breakthrough. In October, we invited 3- to 5-year-olds from OB to trick or treat in our offices. Various work teams at Waddell & Reed have collected can openers and Halloween costumes for the OB children this fall, as well as shopping for 150 new winter coats for the children.

What did we accomplish?

School supply drive

What did we accomplish?

Trick or treating!

Winter coats for 150 children

What did we accomplish?

Fixings for Thanksgiving dinner for more than 475

low-income families.

Leadership and employees have donated more than $200,000 to OB over the past six years. This funding is especially important to Operation Breakthrough in the face of government cuts. OB must raise 65 percent of its budget every year in private donations. Of special note, in honor of Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. CEO and Chairman Henry J. “Hank” Herrmann’s 40th Anniversary in 2011, the company raised more than $100,000 toward the renovation, operation and stocking of Operation Breakthrough’s food pantry, which feeds more than 500 people each month, 75 percent of them children. Employees and their families also have volunteered innumerable hours to OB, shopping for children’s winter coats, painting offices and therapy rooms, collecting thousands of toothbrushes for OB families, and conducting holiday celebrations for the children. The Waddell & Reed family looks to continue demonstrating its support into 2014, as we greatly value this very meaningful partnership with one of the area’s important non-profit organizations.

Plan for ongoing relationship with OB?

CEO Hank Herrmann with Karen Herrmann and OB children.

What would OB do with grant funds?

A grant from the Super Service Challenge would help Operation Breakthrough continue to provide free services to the Kansas City children who are most in need. One in 4 of OB’s children is homeless or in foster care. These vulnerable children arrive at OB’s doorstep needing almost everything, from dry diapers to a hot meal, from immunizations to caring teachers, from lively lessons to undisturbed naps. All of the above is provided every weekday at no cost to parents who are struggling just to pay rent and utilities on minimum wage. Operation Breakthrough could not provide a “one-stop-shop” of family services without charitable donations. With recent cuts to Head Start and food stamps, fundraising in the private sector is even more vital for the future of the 400+ children who count on Operation Breakthrough for safety, education and TLC.