A Kansas City charity hopes to host Taylor Swift soon after the 14-time Grammy winner’s generous $250,000 donation.
Operation Breakthrough is a nonprofit that provides programs and quality childcare for children of the working poor.
A week before Christmas, Operation Breakthrough’s CEO Mary Esselman received a call from Swift’s team informing her that the singer wanted to make a quarter-million dollar donation to the organization.
‘Our kids were pretty excited,’ the CEO says. ‘We asked them if they wanted to do a little thank you, and you could see we had a lot of enthusiastic participants.’
In a one-minute video posted on their social media, the children at Project Breakthrough expressed their appreciation for Swift and her donation.
The money received from Swift will be divided into three programs: the workforce development and entrepreneurship program which includes 10 labs where kids can learn industry trades, the before and after school program which provides child care services for families when school is not in session, and the early learners program.
Taylor Swift is being invited to visit a Kansas City charity after her generous $250k donation
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‘We have 432 students, birth to 5-year-olds who are there every day for early care and education,’ Esselman said about the early learners program. ‘Our goal is to make sure every child enters school ready.’
Swift’s donation was likely encouraged by Travis Kelce’s advocacy and support for the organization over the past decade. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end first visited campus shortly after Esselman took over as CEO.
Given Kelce’s involvement with the programs, Esselman is optimistic that Swift would come to see the campus and the kids in the future.
‘Maybe one of these times she’ll pop along with Travis,’ Esselman says, ‘but we couldn’t be more grateful that she selected us for such a special gift.’
Since March 2015, Kelce has perennially assisted the organization and sponsors the ’87 and Running’ robotics team. In 2020, he bought the muffler shop for the high school workforce development and entrepreneurship program.
Most recently, Kelce highlighted the kids’ projects by driving a 1996 Chevrolet Chevelle that they had converted to an all-electric vehicle to his December 8 game at Arrowhead.
‘He came for Read Across America Day,’ she recalls. ‘He was reading to some of the preschool classrooms and he just kept coming back.’