Tournament Golf Foundation Helps The Today Show Lend a Hand to Schoolhouse Supplies

Today Show weatherman Al Roker was in Portland with some good news for a worthy program. Roker broadcast live from the Schoolhouse Supplies Warehouse in the basement of Madison High School in Northeast Portland, and did a feature on the program and how it is helping meet the needs of teachers and students for school supplies in the Portland School District. As a part of the program he introduced Tom Maletis, President of Tournament Golf Foundation, who presented a check for $15,000 to Nick Viele, Schoolhouse Supplies Executive Director.

The funds are part of the $775,000 in charitable donations that TGFI and The Safeway Foundation make each year from proceeds from the Safeway Classic. TGFI has donated to the past to Schoolhouse Supplies and according to Maletis, “this year with the Portland Public School budget crisis, the needs are greater than ever for programs such as this. We are happy to continue as a supporter of this worthy program.”

Schoolhouse Supplies also received a truckload full of supplies, courtesy of K-Mart and Sears, including everything from backpacks to DVD players.

The Today Show Lend a Hand Program is in its fifth year and is visiting five cities around the US during the week.

The Safeway Classic is the second oldest event on the LPGA Tour. The 2005 Safeway Classic will mark the 34th consecutive year the LPGA tour event has been brought to Portland by TGFI. The event, originally called the Portland Classic, has now donated over $10 million to local children’s charities since its inception in 1972, with $4.9 million coming in the past eight years with Safeway as title sponsor.

In total over 20 different charities have been impacted from 2004 tournament proceeds including Boys and Girls Clubs of Portland, Trillium Family Services, Easter Seals of Oregon, Police Activities League of Portland, Evans Scholars Foundation and Oregon Junior Golf.

The 2005 edition of The Safeway Classic, presented by Pepsi, will be held at Columbia-Edgewater Country Club, August 15-21. This year will mark the first time that the tournament has been held in August. Maletis feels that the new dates will help with attendance and participation from many of the charity groups that benefit from tournament proceeds. The purse for the event for this year will be $1.4 million. The Golf Channel will again broadcast the event all three days of tournament play.

Tournament Golf Foundation Inc. is comprised of a local Portland area group of volunteers who donate their time and provide the primary operations for the annual event. Begun in 1972, the group is now comprised of 47 local individuals and couples. TGFI is also the owner and operator of the Safeway International which is held in Phoenix, AZ each March.

Safeway Inc. is a Fortune 50 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America based on sales. The Company operates 1,815 stores in the United States and Western Canada, and has annual sales of $35.6 billion from continuing operations in 2003. The Company’s stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY. Safeway’s Portland division operates 121 stores in Oregon and Southwest Washington..

For more information on Tournament Golf Foundation and the Safeway Classic, visit www.safewaygolf.com. For more information on Schoolhouse Supplies, visit www.schoolhousesupplies.org. For more information on Safeway Stores, click here.