PAWTUCKET – Hasbro Inc. has teamed up with Operation Smile in an international partnership, the toymaker and the Norfolk, Va.-based nonprofit announced late yesterday.
“Making the world smile is what we are all about at Hasbro and no organization better exemplifies that statement than Operation Smile,” said Alfred Verrecchia, Hasbro’s president and chief executive officer. “The joy of seeing a child with a cleft lip or cleft palate transformed into a child who can now smile for the first time is magical.”
The partnership includes a $450,000 grant from the Hasbro Children’s Fund, which will support three 10-day missions abroad to treat children with facial deformities, finance the training of local doctors and help the nonprofit purchase medical equipment and supplies.
The partnership also includes a special Mr. Potato Head plush toy, exclusively for children served by the organization.
And it features an employee volunteer component, in which Hasbro employees in China will participate in Operation Smile’s April 26 to May 7 mission to the cities of Hefei and Zengzhou, taking toys to the children awaiting surgery.
“Through Hasbro’s generosity, hundreds of children will receive surgeries that will change their lives forever and for the better,” said Kathy Magee, Operation Smile’s president and co-founder, “and the volunteers that go on the mission trips will be able to see first hand the result of this gift from the company they work for.”
Additional information about toymaker Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS) and the Hasbro Children’s Fund is available at www.hasbro.com. Information about Operation Smile, now celebrating its 25th year, is available at www.operationsmile.org.
