DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Stan Berry, administrator for Shriners Hospital, left; Masumi Masamitsu, wife of Tony Group president Stan Masamitsu; and Gail Miyashiro were interviewed yesterday during the "Perry and Price Show" at John Dominis Restaurant.

Winner turns good luck into ‘miracle’ for kids

Radio contest winner gives $12,000 prize to Shriners

Against the odds, Gail Miyashiro listened and won a radio station contest giveaway.

But instead of collecting her new car, Miyashiro decided to donate an equivalent cash amount to charity.

Yesterday Miyashiro, a 59-year-old city employee, presented a $12,000 check to the Shriners Hospital for Children after winning the KSSK/Paradise Yellow Pages Lucky Number contest.

"I feel great. I just didn't think it was going to garner this much attention," she said. "Maybe it will spur others into doing something like this too."

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Miyashiro called in and won the KSSK/Paradise Yellow Pages Lucky Number contest earlier this year.

The prize: a 2007 Hyundai Elantra.

"Nobody in my family needed a car," Miyashiro said.

After Miyashiro won the contest, she shared her thoughts with a car salesman at a Saturn dealership, where she had purchased a new car.

He mentioned that the Shriners Hospital was raising money to improve its facilities.

It seemed like a worthwhile cause to Miyashiro, and yesterday, during the "Perry and Price Show," Miyashiro collected a $12,000 check instead of the car and promptly donated it to Shriners.

"I think the most I ever donated before was the University of Hawaii Foundation. It was like $50 or $100," Miyashiro said.

Her friends thought Miyashiro was crazy. Why didn't she just sell the car? But the 59-year-old Salt Lake resident and secretary for the city's Division of Facilities and Maintenance said she just didn't need the car or the money.

Radio host Michael Perry called the donation one of the most generous things he's ever witnessed. Stan Berry, the administrator of the Shriners Hospital for Children, also praised Miyashiro.

"I see a lot of miracles happen every day," he said. "This is one of them."

Miyashiro's donation will be part of a local fundraising campaign to upgrade the hospital on Punahou Street. The Shriners are trying to raise $14 million locally, of the total $73 million building cost.

The hospital upgrade is expected to be completed in 2009. The expanded facility will have 24 beds and a second story. Future upgrades will include 10 apartments where families of patients can stay during treatment, a rehabilitation center with a pool and research offices.

The last time the Shriners Hospital for Children in Honolulu was remodeled was in the 1960s, Berry said.

He said the hospital has raised about $9 million so far.

"We're getting very close," Berry said. "This is a very generous gift for anybody who has a job in this day and age of rising health-care costs and gas. With $12,000, how many years of gas would that have bought?"