Bank is first to go so high Kaua’i United Way and four other United Way chapters will share a $1 million donation from First Hawaiian Bank. The donation, raised partly in donations from the bank’s 2,200 employees, is the first
Bank is first to go so high
Kaua’i United Way and four other United Way chapters will share a $1 million donation from First Hawaiian Bank.
The donation, raised partly in donations from the bank’s 2,200 employees, is the first time any Hawai’i company has reached the million-dollar mark in United Way support in one year.
“That’s fantastic,” said Scott Giarman, executive director of Kaua’i United Way. “It’s always great when corporations remember all the islands this way.”
Exact shares of the donation weren’t announced Monday, but they will be based on the population of each island, with Oahu receiving the biggest portion, said bank spokesman Gerry Keir.
Other islands getting a share will be Big Island, Maui and Molokai.
First Hawaiian’s employees donated $468,000 (an average of $213 per person), 11 percent more than their goal of $421,000, said bank chairman Walter A. Dods. Their “generosity” spurred the bank to push the total contribution to $1 million, he said.
Dods said the economic fallout since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was expected to hurt United Way donations within the bank’s workforce, but instead the employees “dug deeper.”
On Kaua’i, the United Way fund-raising goal islandwide this year is $550,000.
Giarman said that with nearly two months to go, “it’s too soon to tell” if the goal will be reached or topped.
The five United Way agencies will also divide a $100,000 gift from the state’s largest dental insurer, Hawai’i Dental Service.
Editor Pat Jenkins can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) and mailto:pjenkins@pulitzer.net
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
