Proceeds at work

Hundreds of avid golfers, philanthropists and sponsors turned out Tuesday in Newport Beach for the Toshiba Classic’s annual Breakfast with a Champion, a tradition that kicks off a countdown to Friday’s big golf tournament.

Champions Tour golfer Corey Pavin won the morning during a question-and-answer session, but it was talk of health care, not golf, that dominated the first part of the breakfast gathering.

Richard Afable, Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian’s president and chief executive, updated the audience on how the Newport Beach hospital has chosen to spend the millions of dollars in tournament proceeds from the past few years.

Yes, new technology, such as cooling devices for heart attack victims, has saved lives, thanks, in part, to the proceeds from the tournament, Afable told the breakfast crowd at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa at Newport Center.

Yes, blood clots have been removed in a faster manner from potential stroke victims, courtesy of newer procedures in the field of neuroscience, the availability of which increased with more money on hand, he added.

But perhaps more importantly are the preventive measures that the hospital has recently undertaken to combat conditions associated with diabetes, Afable said.

Last June, the Mary and Dick Allen Diabetes Center opened at the hospital, something that could not have happened had it not been for the nearly $1 million a year that the golf tournament raises for Hoag.

The sad fact is that 8% of the U.S. population has diabetes, Afable said.

“Truth be known, we get paid when people get sick,” Afable said. “We focus on disease and illness and not on health and preventive measures.

“When we treat diabetes, we wait for people to get sick and then we treat the heart attacks and the strokes and kidney failure. Wouldn’t it be more logical to focus on prevention instead?”

Afable said he hopes the center will do just that.

“The work that we do,” he said, “could not occur without the support of you.”

But the money raised by the tournament doesn’t just go to the hospital.

Some of it makes its way to high school students. Alexandra Marten, a senior at Trabuco Hills, and Emily Tian, a senior at University High School in Irvine, received $10,000 apiece.

The pair of 2010 Toshiba Classic Scholarship winners came out on top of a field of 12 scholarships finalists, which included four students from Newport-Mesa Unified schools: Elizabeth Nguyen of Corona del Mar High; Kaitlin Yamamoto of Costa Mesa High; Jillian Beck of Estancia High; and Anastasia Shuba of Newport Harbor High.

Marten and Tian also received Toshiba laptops, as did 10 other finalists.

The students, interviewed before the breakfast, said they were happy to have received help in tough economic times.

The winners were chosen based on factors including grade-point average and community involvement.

Marten, for example, hosted a drive to make sure students in need receive dresses for the prom, while Tian has volunteered hundreds of hours at the American Red Cross and as a youth educator in the HIV/AIDS-awareness program.

Tian wants to one day become a financial analyst. Marten would like to work in communications or international relations.