KIWANIS CLUB OF MAUI DONATES $10,000 TO FRIENDS OF THE MAUI DRUG COURT

KAHULUI -- Members of the Kiwanis Club of Maui turned a summer service
project into a $10,000 donation for a nonprofit group supporting the Maui
Drug Court through the Weinberg Friends Program.

Friends of the Maui Drug Court received the donation Aug. 22. The Weinberg
Friends Program was set up by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation to
provide a donation to a charity selected by a service club in exchange for a
community service project by club members.

The Kiwanis Club of Maui selected the Friends of the Maui Drug Court for the
donation. Their service project was held July 27, when more than 25 Maui
Kiwanians combined to provide more than 100 hours fitting, inventorying and
labeling hurricane panels at Hale Makua facilities in Kahului and Wailuku.

Over the past two years, through the Weinberg Friends Program, the Kiwanis
Club has been able to award $10,000 each to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Maui
and Camp IMUA Rehab.

In the exchange, Kiwanis members painted the kitchen and cafeteria at Camp
Maluhia and painted the Hospice Maui building to earn the donations, said
Linda Ludwick, president-elect of the Kiwanis Club of Maui.

"The Weinberg Friends Program is really smart," said Lillian Koller, an
attorney who is coordinator of the Maui Drug Court program. "It gets two
benefits for the Maui community for the price of one."

The $10,000 to the Friends of the Drug Court will be used for professional
treatment, health care and other support services, Koller said.

Nearly 180 people have been enrolled in the Drug Court, which offers court
supervision and treatment as an alternative to incarceration for some
nonviolent drug-related offenders.

"This contribution will go a long way in helping to address the terrible
drug problem in our community, because the Maui Drug Court program is really
working," said Maui Police Chief Tom Phillips, who attended the Kiwanis
award ceremony.

Noting that Drug Court supervision includes drug testing, 2nd Circuit Chief
Judge Shackley Raffetto said 99 percent of the nearly 20,000 drug tests
administered by the Drug Court have been clean. Only two of 40 Drug Court
graduates have been rearrested, for a 95 percent success rate, he said.

Both Phillips and Raffetto said most crime and new felony charges on Maui
can be linked to drugs, particularly crystal methamphetamine.