Sister Berta Sailer died last Thursday at age 87, leaving behind an important legacy in Kansas City. Sailer co-opened Operation Breakthrough in 1971 with fellow nun Sister Corita Bussanma, and worked there 365 days a year for 44 years, only taking a break when she broke a hip in 2015. 

“She was so pure,” Lori Ross, founder and CEO of FosterAdopt Connect, said. “There was never a piece of her being that wasn’t fully committed to the value of every single human being she encountered. And that is magic.”

A Rosary Service will be held for Sailer at 6 p.m. Wednesday, with visitation from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church. The following day, there will be a Mass of Christian Burial at 6 p.m. at the same church.

“Words fail me,” one person wrote on Operation Breakthroughs Facebook page about Sailer’s death. “She was the feistiest angel and an inspiration to so many for decades.”

Operation Breakthrough is an education center for underserved children in the community. It serves more than 700 kids each weekday and also provides services such as free onsite healthcare and family services. Operation Breakthrough also houses a food pantry and distributes donated clothes and coats. 

“Sister Berta spent as many hours uplifting – and scolding – parents as she did children,” Sailer’s obituary stated. “She took every opportunity to put urban-core parents and potential supporters on common ground, battering away at the mindset of ‘us’ and ‘them.’”

Outside of Operation Breakthrough, Sailer adopted four children with Bussanma and had over 70 foster children throughout her life. Sailer also worked tirelessly as a liaison between local charities, connecting those in need to people who could help. 

“Sister Berta would find a family with seven kids that really needed a car because it was hard getting the kids where they needed to go,” Denise Phillips, a former juvenile prosecutor who worked closely with Sailer, said. “And she would just be relentless. She would find somebody to give the lady a car. I don’t know how she did it.”

Sailer encouraged community support for local nonprofits. In the wake of the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, Sailer issued her famous “Sister Berta’s Challenge,” directing parents who felt helpless to choose a service to volunteer at or donate to in teh name of one of the 20 children who died. 

“It was that call to action that it really takes all of us in the community,” said Carly Schultze, the chief program officer of a local nonprofit during the challenge. “That shared motivation to help others without expecting anything in return and providing those kinds of resources and support to kids who are not receiving them elsewhere.”

Sailer ran other successful programs through Operation Breakthrough, such as the “City You Never See” program which brought legislators together on a bus tour through impoverished areas of the city to show them the conditions that people who lived there faced. The tours began 20 years ago and continue to this day. 

“I think she believed, with her whole heart, that if she could just show them the hardships families face that they would feel like she feels like we feel,” Phillips said. “She just was never going to be satisfied unless she could show, one person at a time, that people are not poor on purpose, that people are not poor because they’re stupid. People are not poor because they’re lazy.”

Sailer supported kids and parents, starting a program called “100 Jobs for 100 Moms” which encouraged employers to give jobs to women with kids. Sailer was known for not parsing words and being direct when sharing her views. 

“One thing she was known to say was ‘We save tin cans but throw away children. That does not make any sense.’” former Operation Breakthrough worker Susie Roling said.

Sailer’s commendations include the Kindest Kansas Citian Award in 2001. She and Bussanma have also won the Community Service Award from the Women’s Political Caucus in 2007, the Marion and John Kreamer, and the Award for Social Entrepreneurship from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2014. 

“Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor every morning, the devil says, ‘Oh, crap! She’s up!’” Sailer said. “The child who will grow up to cure cancer might be here in our Center today, and we better make sure they have what they need to succeed.”