5 minute read
Breaking Barriers
Alumni Couple Creates Scholarship to Support Students From KC’s Operation Breakthrough
You may know the story of Hallmark company founder Joyce Clyde Hall, who arrived at Kansas City’s Union Station carrying nothing but two shoeboxes full of picture postcards he hoped to sell. After a 39-year career at Hallmark, Homer Kay knows this story well — and has one of his own.
“My father was one who kept the books by putting the receipts in one shoebox and the disbursements in another, and that’s how he knew if he was making any money,” he says. “So I started doing the books for him.”
Becky Kay was also drawn to bookkeeping in high school, and the couple met at the University of Central Missouri in an accounting class taught by the late Professor Emeritus Kenneth Stone. They both worked in the Humphreys Building — Becky for the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and Homer for the testing center — and walked across the quad together.
Becky grew up in Russellville, Missouri, and Homer is from Knob Noster. Both were the first in their families to graduate from college, earning their Accounting degrees from the University of Central Missouri (then Central Missouri State University) in 1978. After graduation, Becky took a job with a small accounting firm in Kansas City and later became chief financial officer for Water District No. 1 of Johnson County, Kansas. Homer moved to Jefferson City to work in the Missouri State Auditor’s Office. When the two started dating, Homer decided to relocate to Kansas City and got hired at Hallmark in 1980, the same year he and Becky got married.
In 1994, Homer was promoted to a CFO post with the U.K. branch of Hallmark, and they moved with their young daughter and infant son to Bath, England. There they met and became friends with fellow U.S. citizen Mary Esselman, celebrating “American holidays” with her family.
Although their British neighbors did not observe all the same holidays, “Hallmark moments” were not lost on them. Homer’s team did a focus group when researching the market for ornaments in London, and participants were asked to bring something meaningful to them. He says 90% of attendees brought greeting cards they had saved.
Becky can relate to this sentiment, as greeting cards are still a Kay family tradition. Her son, daughter and five grandchildren cherish each card — and always look on the back for the Hallmark logo.
“When I get a handwritten note from someone, it’s much appreciated,” Becky says. “And we have every singing snowman the world has ever seen. And a tree full of hundreds of Hallmark ornaments we’ve collected.”
When Homer retired as CEO of Hallmark International, responsible for business in more than 100 countries, he and Esselman were neighbors again in Kansas City. Esselman is now president and CEO of Operation Breakthrough, a not-for-profit organization providing quality child care, advocacy, STEM education, emergency aid and health and wellness outreach to families living in poverty in the inner city.
In 2021, with support from Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s Eighty-Seven and Running Foundation, Operation Breakthrough was able to renovate an old muffler shop located about a mile from Hallmark’s headquarters at the Crown Center. The facility now serves as the Ignition Lab, a learning environment and makerspace for area youth who have aged out of Operation Breakthrough’s after-school Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programs for prekindergarten through middle school students.
De’Vante James (D.J.) McNeal was one of more than 700 underprivileged students annually who participate in these programs, developing skills in coding, robotics, engineering, agriculture, culinary arts, digital media, construction and more. He is also the first recipient of the Homer and Becky Kay “I Matter” Scholarship for Ignition Lab participants enrolling at UCM.
“A lot of the students at Operation Breakthrough never dreamt of getting to go to college,” Homer says. “We think, ultimately, education can be the big difference maker.”
McNeal, who attended the Ewing Marion Kauffman School from grade 6 to 12, just finished his freshman year as a Music Technology major at UCM. His drive and enthusiasm caught the attention of his teachers in the Ignition Lab’s digital media after-school program.
“Before we had a full-time after-school program, D.J. was helping younger students learn music technology while also self-learning his own skills in music production,” Ignition Lab teacher Ian O’Neill says. “D.J.’s first project was to finish building an electric guitar in the electronics program and write a performance piece with it. Over two years in the Ignition Lab, D.J. went from little music production knowledge to being able to write his own pieces for his Music Tech audition.”
The Kays heard McNeal play at a fundraiser for Operation Breakthrough in June 2023. After establishing the Homer and Becky Kay “I Matter” Scholarship, they were thrilled to learn that he would be the first recipient.
The scholarship will be awarded each year to a student who participated in Operation Breakthrough’s Ignition Lab and is seeking a degree from UCM. It is just one of many ways the Kays have given back to their alma mater. As president of the UCM Alumni Foundation Board of Directors, Homer understands the importance of making a planned gift.
“We found each other at UCM, we’ve lived a pretty charmed life together, and we hope that our small part can do that for other people going forward,” Homer says. “This is something that can last forever, way beyond our lifetime.”
