Visitor Industry Charity Walk Seeks Sponsors

The annual HLTA Charity Walk kicks off this May with statewide walks to benefit local charities. Courtesy photo.

The Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association’s  39th Annual Visitor Industry Charity Walk for Hawai‘i Island will be held on Saturday, May 13, on the Kohala Coast.

Registration will take place at Waikoloa Resort’s Queens’ Marketplace and post-event festivities will enliven the Waikoloa Bowl.

The charity walk, bringing together HLTA chapters, member hotels, businesses and other sponsors, is held on six islands, with each county organizing its own walk.

Hawaii Island organizers are seeking business sponsors at a variety of levels to support the annual event.

Sponsorship opportunities include:

• Cool Sponsor level at $1000 to purchase 1,000 business-logo’d fans to help keep walkers cool; two available
• Smile Sponsor level at $1500 for a logo’d photo booth for attendees; two available
• Food Booth Competition Sponsor, $2000, for voting tokens with business logo; one sponsor available
• Mile Sponsor for $500 allows up to three businesses to each place a highly visible sign to alert the thousands of course walkers that a particular mile was sponsored by their business. If the sponsoring business would like to pass out promotional material in addition to logo’d sign, total sponsor cost is $750.
• Warm-Up Sponsor is $1500 for just one business to provide a stage and aerobics instructor to get runners and walkers warmed-up while the instructor and emcee promote the title sponsor company
• One sponsor could be the Flying High Sponsor for $1,500 and pass out balloons with the company logo on them
• Kid Zone Sponsor, $2,000, will help Charity Walk organizers provide bouncy castles and children’s activities. The zone will be named as the sponsoring company’s Kid Zone.

“The success of Charity Walk and our ability to help so many island non-profits in the coming year is highly dependent not only on race and walk participants, but our island businesses,” explained Hawaii Island Charity Walk co-chair Steve Yannarell, general manager, Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa. “We are optimistic that each of our sponsorship levels will be sold out, which would demonstrate meaningful support of this worthwhile event.”

For individual runners and walkers, Charity Walk entry fee is $25 for children ages 5-12 and $35 for adults. Registration opens at 5:00 a.m., runners start at 6:45 a.m. and walkers begin at 7:00 a.m.

All funds received by 501(c)3 nonprofits from the Charity Walk are spent within the State of Hawai‘i to benefit residents of the county in which the funds were raised.

Since Charity Walk began in 1974, more than $30 million has been raised. Learn more or download a non-profit grant application at www.charitywalkhawaii.org.

About the HLTA
The Hawai‘i Lodging & Tourism Association is a nonprofit, statewide trade organization of lodging properties, lodging owners and management companies, suppliers, and related firms and individuals. It was founded in 1947 and is now the state’s largest private sector tourism organization. Today, HLTA consists of 700 members representing the state’s leading industry, 166 of which are lodging properties comprising almost 50,000 rooms. The HLTA is a partner state affiliate of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the largest organization of its kind in the world.