Car Sales Earn $1M For Education

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Mike McKenna (left) and Mark Caliri
celebrate the Spirit of Giving’s $1
million milestone. Photo by Nathalie
Walker, staff photographer.

After 10 years and 436 cars, Mike McKenna has realized his goal of contributing $1 million to Hawaii schools through his Spirit of Giving program.

The car dealer made it official this spring by adjusting the cash thermometer on his showroom floor to the magic number: $1,003,600 (as of March 11).

The program kicks in each time a customer buys a new car at McKenna Ford or Mazda in Kailua and also in Kona. If the buyer designates a school, the dealer sends a check for $100 to that school for its unrestricted use.

“I never thought the program would ever grow to hit a million,” said McKenna, who started it as a one-month promotion in 1996.“In that month, we received so many thank-you notes from the principals that we just decided to keep the program in place.”

More than 47 of those beneficiaries are schools in Central Oahu. Among the bigger winners, according to McKenna’s figures, are Mililani High with $8,300,Pearl City High with $7,200, Leilehua High with $5,300, Waipahu High with $4,900 and Kaleiopuu Elementary with $3,000.

Last year, the businessman was named Dealer of the Year at the annual Automotive Congress for championing education in his community. McKenna also awards cars as incentive prizes for Project Graduation, and he was the inspiration behind the local car dealers’ program of furnishing all seven of Hawaii’s district Teachers of the Year with the use of a car for a year.

“These are our kids,” he told the congress last May, “and it’s our investment in the future, for our kids.”