The formal donation was made Thursday, Jan. 31, at MBUSA's headquarters here, when Larry Sadwin, chairman of the American Heart Association, accepted the check from MBUSA President and CEO Paul Halata and New York Yankees Manager Joe Torre, a pro-am participant in the 2002 Mercedes Championships at Kapalua resort on Maui in Hawaii.

The donation was a result of proceeds from the Mercedes Dealer Championships amateur golf program, which last year featured 175 Mercedes-Benz dealers across the country hosting 187 tournaments for more than 15,000 players. The program culminates annually in a National Final held at Kapalua resort's Bay Course, in conjunction with the PGA TOUR's prestigious season-opening Mercedes Championships.

"The Mercedes Dealer Championships has grown each year, and so have our charitable donations," said Halata. "The American Heart Association is very important to Mercedes-Benz, but also to Joe Torre, whose brother is a heart-transplant recipient. In the eight years that we've had this program, MBUSA has donated more than $4 million to charity, and that is a tradition we wish to continue."

The Herb Gordon Mercedes-Benz team from Silver Spring, Md., won the National Final Jan. 4. The team members, Craig Birmingham and David Ruben of Potomac, Md., and Dave Rasley and Scott Reed, of Bethesda, Md., earned replicas of the Tiffany Trophy awarded to Sergio Garcia, who won the professional event Jan. 6, on Kapalua's Plantation Course in a playoff with David Toms. Garcia was awarded the $720,000 first-place check and the keys to a 2003 Mercedes-Benz SL500 Sport for his victory in the PGA TOUR's winners-only, season-opening tournament. Mercedes-Benz has announced their sponsorship of that tournament has been extended for another four years.

"The continued support of the American Heart Association from Mercedes-Benz USA, their dealers and customers will greatly aid the American Heart Association in our mission to reduce disability and death from cardiovascular disease and stroke," said Sadwin.

Mercedes-Benz USA is responsible for the marketing, sales and service of Mercedes-Benz products in the United States. This is the second year that the American Heart Association has been the beneficiary of the Mercedes Dealer Championships program.