The Rotary Club of Kona has been officially named the PGA Tour Champions Charity of the Year for 2023.
This national honor celebrates the club's mission "service above self" for the residents of West Hawaii. Acknowledged in 1948, the Club has five avenues of service: club service, vocational service, community service, international service and new generations.
Rotary Club of Kona has been a charity for the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai since the tournament's establishment in 1997. Every year since, the Club has been thoroughly involved in recruiting, managing, and operating the tournament volunteers, which comes out to about 350 volunteers per tournament. Overall, the Club has totaled $1.1 million in contributions over those many years.
In return, the PGA Championship's support has very well impacted the community. The Club has been able to give scholarships to local youth, provide equipment to a children's museum, provide support to a program for at-risk teens and help provide hot meals & bags of groceries to a food-insecure community. They supplied support to equipment for the local community college's culinary program & science labs, and contributed to the purchase of a water truck for an on-island community with no running water.
