Crew members at the Sonic Drive-In in Kahului have been selected to compete in the Dr Pepper Sonic Games, which features the top 50 Sonics in the U.S. Photo courtesy Sonic

The Sonic Drive-In at 1110 Ho’okele St. in Kahului has donated $10,000 to 12 Maui teachers to support local area schools as the restaurant’s crew prepares to compete at the Dr Pepper Sonic Games next month in Nashville, Tennessee.

The donation was funded through educational projects listed on DonorsChoose, which allows people to donate online directly to classroom requests submitted by public school teachers across the United States.

Projects funded by Sonic included projects by four teachers from Kahului Elementary School, two teachers from Maui High School and three teachers each from Maui Waena Intermediate and Lihikai Elementary schools.

“We were just really happy that the schools got the donations,” said Jesse Neumann, Sonic Drive-In Maui’s general manager.

Neuman worked as a supervisor for Sonic Drive-In in Wyoming and Washington state, before being selected as the general manager on Maui.

This local funding is part of a larger nationwide effort to honor the Top 50 teams in the Dr Pepper Sonic Games, an annual Sonic training initiative.

The Sonic Drive-in Maui team is one of 50 to be selected to compete in the national Dr. Pepper Sonic Games on Oct. 5 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Part of the overall competition includes an independent evaluation by a mystery shopper judging the restaurant’s performance, including service and cleanliness.

There are some 3,500 Sonic Drive-Ins nationwide. Since 2009, Sonic has donated more than $30 million to funding local classrooms.