THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250418
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
A charitable foundation has given the supporters of Hampton Roads' Operation Smile something they can smile about - $1 million dollars to benefit their work.
The Norfolk-based group announced Wednesday that it had received the first Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, billed as the largest humanitarian award in the world.
Operation Smile provides free surgery for poor children around the world suffering from disfiguring conditions like cleft palates, cleft lips and burn scars. The group relies on donated time and supplies.
``This is unbelievable to us . . . To be selected for it is incredibly humbling,'' said Dr. William P. Magee. Magee and his wife, Kathleen, a nurse and social worker, founded Operation Smile in 1982.
The group has treated 16,500 children since then. Members have established 28 regional offices in the United States and 12 abroad.
The prize was awarded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, a charitable group established by the hotel entrepreneur in 1944. The award is for non-government organizations that significantly alleviate pain and suffering, go to extraordinary efforts to save lives and help the afflicted, and create long-term benefits for those helped. The jury was made up of international dignitaries.
Members of Operation Smile ``really do a fantastic job,'' said William Richard Smyser, executive director of the Hilton Prize. Smyser was United Nations deputy high commissioner for refugees in the 1980s. He spoke by phone from the Hilton foundation's Los Angeles office.
Smyser visited an Operation Smile mission in Nicaragua in January.
``What impressed me most was the way they worked with local doctors and Nicaraguan groups,'' Smyser said. ``There would be an American doctor on one side of the patient and a Nicaraguan doctor on the other.'' That commitment to sharing knowledge showed that Operation Smile wanted to create long-term benefits for the countries it visited.
``We don't want somebody who visits, plants a flag, has a photograph taken and leaves,'' he said.
Operation Smile was nominated by Thomas R. Pickering, U.S. Ambassador to Russia, and by journalist Charles Osgood of CBS News Sunday Morning and The Osgood Files.
Pickering got to know the group when it undertook a fund-raiser in Russia to support its programs there. Osgood did a report on them last year.
The $1 million is a windfall for the group - their budget for the year is $3.8 million. Operation Smile doesn't have an endowment.
Magee said they will use their money in part to expand operations in the United States.
``This is really a tribute to this community,'' Magee said. ``We had a group of people in this community that really believed'' in the cause. MEMO: ABOUT THE PRIZE
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is a charitable group established by
the hotel entrepreneur in 1944. The Humanitarian Prize is for
non-government organizations that significantly alleviate pain and
suffering, go to extraordinary efforts to save lives and help the
afflicted, and create long-term benefits for those helped.
ABOUT OPERATION SMILE
The Norfolk-based group provides free surgery for poor children
around the world suffering from disfiguring conditions like cleft
palates, cleft lips and burn scars. The group relies on donated time and
supplies. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by JIM WALKER, The Virginian-Pilot
Dr. William P. Magee and his wife, Kathleen, founded Operation Smile
in 1982. ``This is unbelievable to us,'' Dr. Magee said.
by CNB