KAPALUA — At a reception on May 8, Kapalua Maui Charities, host organization of the Mercedes-Benz Championship, celebrated the donation of $300,000 to local designated beneficiaries and other Maui community organizations.

Funds were raised through programs and auction proceeds from the 2009 Mercedes-Benz Championship.

Since 1999, Kapalua Maui Charities, through the Mercedes-Benz Championship, has donated over $3.2 million to the Maui community.

This year, designated beneficiaries receiving the majority of the proceeds from Kapalua Maui Charities include the Boy Scouts of America, Maui County Council; Friends of the Children’s Justice Center; Hale Makua; J. Walter Cameron Center; Ka Lima O Maui; Lahainaluna High School Foundation; and Maui Memorial Medical Center Foundation. A portion of the funds were also donated to Maui Junior Golf and the Lahaina After School Tutor Program.

Friends of the Children’s Justice Center will use the funding to grant requests from case workers at 25 Maui agencies for physically, emotionally and sexually abused and severely neglected children, providing necessary and sometimes critical services when no other funds are available.

Hale Makua’s donation will help fund the Luana Project (meaning “living in comfort”). This project is a long-term commitment to transform facilities and programs to be less institutional and more homelike, with the goal of preventing loneliness, helplessness and boredom among elders living in Hale Makua’s neighborhoods.

Lahainaluna High School Foundation will fund various educational needs, including the new biotech class; support student clubs and athletic teams; and enhance Lahainaluna High School’s outdoor theater.

Ululani Correa, executive director of the Maui Memorial Medical Center Foundation, noted, “The 2008 funds we received were used to purchase more than $420,000 in cardiovascular equipment for Maui Memorial Medical Center. As MMMC moves forward to provide one day soon cardiovascular surgeries here on Maui for our entire community, the support from Kapalua Maui Charities is instrumental in funding our equipment. With this service, our residents will not have to fly to Oahu for heart surgeries, because we’ll be able to provide the service here on Maui.

“For this, we are most grateful and truly appreciate all that Kapalua Resort continues to do for our community. We look forward to working with everyone again in 2010.”

The Mercedes-Benz Championship was held in January at The Plantation Course in Kapalua Resort. A large number of volunteers, many of whom return to Maui each year for their service trip, are excited to see a world-class golf tournament up close and lend a helping hand to benefit the Maui community.

More than 500 volunteers help to put on the tournament, and the economic impact stays with the community long after it is over.

“We greatly appreciate the partnership with our designated nonprofit organizations on Maui. It’s been a win-win situation for us all,” said Tournament Director Nancy Cross at the beneficiary reception.

“The charities have contributed towards the success of the event by distributing nearly 100,000 brochures, flyers and posters, lowering our operational costs and providing over 3,700 hours of volunteer service, which included washing vans, laundering 450 pounds of linen and cleaning the course. We couldn’t do this without you.”

The dates for next year’s event are Jan. 4-10, 2010. The PGA Tour and Kapalua Resort announced that SBS International of Korea will become title sponsor of the tournament for the next ten years, from 2010 to 2019. The tournament will be renamed the SBS Championship.

For more information, or to buy tickets, visit www.kapalua.com or call 665-9160.