|
Pennies from heaven there are differing opinions among religious denominations about recognizing saints, but it's safe to say many would agree on their favorite angel.
The Weinberg Foundation is a
special angel of schools, churches
and charitable groupsBy Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.comA Lutheran school in Kaneohe, a United Church of Christ preschool in Waialua and an ecumenical ministry serving the ill and infirm are the latest beneficiaries of a Jewish businessman who left his fortune to charity.
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation presented a $600,000 check yesterday to St. Mark Lutheran School for a gymnasium-multipurpose building that Principal Lynne Uffman called "a dream come true."
Construction is already under way at the Kaneohe site with an expected August completion. It will have a daily impact on the 192 students, Uffman said, providing shelter during recess at the rainy Windward campus, space for physical education classes, ability to host volleyball and basketball competition, and a venue for concerts and drama performances which now tax the capacity of the adjacent church. It may mean expanding the size of the seventh and eighth grades, she said.
As is typical, the foundation created by the financier -- who was famous locally as a shrewd investor -- only provided its contribution as the final third of the school's $1.7 million fund drive. The campaign also benefited from grants totaling $600,000 from the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation and the Samuel and Mary Castle Foundation.
The St. Mark check presentation follows other recent gifts from the foundation named for the businessman, who died in 1990, and his wife. They include:
>> The Pacific Health Ministry received $570,000 last month to create the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center for Healing at its headquarters at 1245 Young St.
>> Waialua United Church of Christ received $855,000 to build a preschool and community center. The November gift topped off the church's $2.85 million building project, which is expected to be completed in May. A Head Start preschool program will open in the fall.
>> Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Preschool received $202,000 in July to complete its $700,000 Kuakini Street renovation. Children in the preschool and the after-school program are already using the covered lanai, playground and activity center, which will include a computer room.
"They made it possible, no doubt about that," said Scott Euken, Good Shepherd director of Christian outreach. The construction replaced termite-damaged buildings dating to the early 1960s. Hot breakfast and lunch will be generated in the kitchen once again when it is furnished, he said.
Weinberg also provided for his own house of worship, in an agreement he signed before his death. The final installment was made last month on a $3.5 million endowment to Temple Emanu-El. The interest will fund capital improvements and operating expenses for religious programs at the Nuuanu synagogue.
The Weinberg names are already on the temple learning center. The foundation requires the names be affixed for any grant more than $250,000. There were 87 buildings bearing the benefactors' names by the end of last year, according to a spokeswoman.
When the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation was established, the businessman's $900 million fortune was expected to generate $40 million annually for charitable grants. But the foundation does not toot its own horn. Announcements come from the recipients. A local employee, who declined to be identified, said 450 grants have been made to nonprofit organizations since 1990.
"The extent of his generosity is obvious when you see the name," said attorney Edward A. Jaffe. "What you see in Hawaii is a very small portion of the extent of his giving. He is a tremendous benefactor to Jewish charities and to Israel ... specifically to charities intended to take care of the elderly in Israel." For instance, the foundation paid to air-condition nursing homes in Israel.
"For every dollar given here, I'd say nine dollars are given elsewhere." Jaffe said the foundation is administered from Baltimore, where Weinberg grew up and the target of much of his foundation's largesse.
"He was a wonderful man, as magnanimous in his charity as he was sharp and aggressive in his business dealings," said Jaffe, who often represented Weinberg's opponents in various corporate disputes. Jaffe, also a Temple Emanu-El member, was one of the attorneys who worked out the Weinberg endowment fund to the temple.
"He grew up poor," said the attorney. "He was a beneficiary of charity as a child, so it was only natural he would be a benefactor.
"He lived extremely modestly. He never spent money on himself," Jaffe said. "He had a rundown office on Nimitz Highway with a dripping air conditioner. He shared it with his accountant. He did not have a separate office. He would not fly first class."
Weinberg grew up in a Catholic home in Baltimore, and "That's why he gave a significant amount to Catholic charities," Jaffe said.
Among the buildings memorializing Weinberg is a facility for unwed pregnant women, which opened in 2000. Catholic Charities of Honolulu received $270,000 of its $900,000 capital campaign funding to buy and renovate a Kailua home to replace the former Mary Jane Center in Kalihi.
"The grant goes beyond the capital expense, providing an endowment to maintain the home," said Catholic Charities Executive Director Jerry Rauckhorst.
"We were the beneficiary of one of the early grants, a $1 million grant we call the Weinberg Kokua Fund," he said. Interest generated by the endowment fund is administered by the diocesan Office of Social Ministry. Some grants given last year: $5,980 to help MailiLand transitional shelter residents with identification needed for job hunting; $7,500 for education and child-care expenses for a single mother of two children; $4,000 to train health-care volunteers in Big Island and Kauai parishes; $450 for telephone service for a disabled parent and child.
"They make such a difference," said Rauckhorst. "Without them I don't know what we would do."
There was also a long-term caveat attached to the $1 million grant that helped build the $4.2 million gymnasium complex at St. Andrew's Priory in 1996. Admissions Director Sue Ann Wargo said money also went into a scholarship endowment program so eight girls "who would not be able to afford a priory education" have their tuition paid each year.
The Pacific Health Ministry, an interfaith agency best known for its training program for chaplains in hospitals and crisis counseling, got help with a $2 million campaign to purchase a two-story Makiki building. It will house the Center for Healing, headquarters for nursing staff and volunteers to provide services to indigent or low-income sick and elderly people. It will also provide crisis intervention and counseling for bereaved families.
"I told them we offered a thousand thanks and that is not enough," said Rev. John Moody, the agency's president.
Click for online
calendars and events.
