Interactive Learning Center

The ILC was created to bring people closer to the organization’s work through the perspectives of nine friends — real Operation Smile patients who, despite many challenges and barriers, courageously took action and joined us in hopes of receiving surgery and other essential treatments at surgical programs and care centers around the world.

Legacy and Learning

Set in the birthplace of Operation Smile, the Philippines, the exhibit is equal parts legacy and learning. Visitors will learn about Operation Smile’s global efforts to deliver essential cleft care where it’s needed most. The exhibit also teaches how we support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Additionally, it offers opportunities for career exploration and supports lessons in science, technology, engineering, the arts and math (STEAM) as well as Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs).

Perhaps most importantly, we hope everyone who experiences the ILC will leave with a greater sense of empathy and capacity for kindness.

Whether you’re an educator with a classroom of students, a curious supporter, a corporate partner or someone who just wants to learn more about Operation Smile, we invite you all to meet our friends and follow in their footsteps as they journey to the program site.

Special Thanks

It was their love of education — and each other — that made the ILC possible.

Enlightened by his travels and inspired by the love of his life, Hideko, Anthony “Tony” L. Burgess’s legacy of learning and hard work shines through his $1 million gift to Operation Smile. The Burgess family is empowering generations of young people to experience and embrace a global perspective.

As a U.S. military veteran who met his wife while serving in Japan as an English teacher, Operation Smile’s mission and vision resonated with Burgess. 

He researched charities in which education and children’s development were a priority, and when he met the team at Operation Smile and learned about the plans for the ILC, Burgess knew he found the perfect fit for honoring Hideko’s memory.  

“I think we are all privileged to be a witness to a man who transcended himself to the highest level of human fulfillment, becoming a humanitarian,” said Fred Facka, the former director of planned giving for Operation Smile. “And, in his case, from living a humble life.”