If you don't drink, you drive your free car
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
Auto dealer Mike McKenna knows firsthand the dangers that stalk graduating high school students who mix drinking and driving at this time of year.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
When he was 16, McKenna piled into an old Plymouth sedan with seven of his friends leaving a graduation party in Providence, R.I., all of them "drinking and raising hell." The next thing he remembers is that the car hit a sign post and he ended up hanging from a tree with a broken arm.
Beverlyn Maglalang got a free car from auto dealer Mike McKenna after her high school met an alcohol-free goal.
"We were lucky," McKenna said. "No one got killed."
A lot of others aren't so fortunate. More people of ages 16 through 20 are injured or killed between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. during graduation season than at any other time of year.
All of which explains why McKenna, who owns 19 automobile dealerships here and on the Mainland, is the state's foremost supporter of Project Graduation, a 10-year-old effort to have seniors attend an alcohol-free, drug-free party on graduation night.
This year about 6,000 seniors from 45 high schools attended the parties. The parties ranged from 368 students at Mililani High School to seven students and two parents at Redemption Academy.
It's safe to say, though, that few of the parties offer as much excitement as those sponsored by McKenna at five high schools. He offers a free car to one student at each school for attaining 95 percent participation in the Project Graduation party.
This year, McKenna gave away two cars, valued at $12,000 each. In the past 10 years, he donated 25 cars.
They are not leases or loans, either; the students get to keep the cars to do with as they please — drive, trade or sell to help pay for their higher education.
"It's a great incentive to participate," said Jan Meeker, a Department of Education resource teacher who coordinates the Project Graduation program. When the program began at Roosevelt High School in 1990, participation was about 30 percent; last year the rate was about 58 percent.
"Other schools give away prizes like a computer or a television set, but nothing has the same appeal as getting your own car."
McKenna said the idea for giving away a car came to him 10 years ago when a Kalaheo High School parent approached him for a $100 donation for Project Graduation, which at the time had a 35 percent participation rate.
"What would happen if I donated a car?" McKenna remembers asking.
"We might hit 100 percent," the parent replied.
McKenna settled for a goal of 95 percent. That year he ended up giving away a classic gull-winged, Canadian-made Bricklin that had been sitting on one of his lots for months. Since then he has expanded the program to three other O'ahu schools — Castle, Kailua and Kahuku — and to Kealakehe in Kona.
"I knew all along I was going to win," said Kalaheo's Beverlyn Maglalang, who this year took home a 1999 Ford Escort on the day after graduation. "I just had a feeling it would be me."
A day earlier, Emma Tuitavuki, a 17-year-old Kahuku High graduate, won a 1995 Mustang coupe.
If a school qualifies, sponsors hand out 10 keys to randomly chosen seniors, then watch the fun knowing that only one will start the car.
In both drawings this year, the 10th student had the winning key, said Dave Rolf, director of the Hawai'i Automobile Dealers Association.
"It's a great idea," Rolf said. "It's the one that helped inspire other dealers to start giving away cars to all our teachers of the year."
The high participation rates at the McKenna-sponsored schools have drawn lots of publicity and calls from around the nation to find out how the program works here, Rolf said.
When a class fails to reach the 95 percent rate, McKenna offers a $2,500 cash consolation prize to one student.
McKenna said he stays in touch with many of the car-winning students; in some cases he buys back the car to help pay for the student's college expenses, or takes the car back in a trade to help a family buy a bigger, more expensive model.
"We'll keep doing it," McKenna said. "When the key works and you see the look of elation on that kid's face, it's a great moment."
Maglalang, who plans to attend junior college in California, said the car was a big incentive in getting students to attend the Project Graduation event.
"It was a nice way to end my senior year," she said.
And a safe one.
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
