Press Release: Ford Donates to YMCA, United Way, and Ohio Kidney Foundation

06/05/96

CLEVELAND, PRNewswire -- Ford Motor Company is once again
coming to the aid of charities in the Greater Cleveland area,
making two major new donations and continuing support for
various organizations.

Ford will contribute $100,000 to help renovate the Metro 
Branch of the Cleveland YMCA, and the company will donate a new
Mercury Villager minivan to the Cleveland United Way Services
to be given away in a drawing during the United Way campaign
this fall.

Tom Wagner, Ford vice president of Customer Service and
Communications, announced the contributions Monday night at the
conclusion of the Annual Ford/Kidney Foundation of Ohio Golf
Open at Westwood Country Club in Rocky River.
The event helped raise more than $100,000 for the Kidney 
Foundation, increasing to $800,000 the total raised in the nine
years of the golf tournament.

With Wagner as chairman, Ford sponsored the tourney, 
supported by Eaton Corporation and TRW.

"The money helps fund the foundation's patient programs, 
educational programs and medical research," said Wagner,
"easing the hardships, difficulties and suffering that people w
ith kidney problems have to endure."

Ford also announced it is donating $20,000 to the Institute 
for Educational Renewal project titled "Enlivening Young Minds
- Classroom Renewal for Urban Kids," which operates in 10
Cleveland schools, and $10,000 to the Cultivating Our Community
project, a gardening program harvesting vegetables and flowers
for urban residents.

In the past four years, Ford has donated $3.4 million to 
these organizations, $960,000 last year alone -- the highest
amount ever for one year.  Ford is the largest private-sector
employer in the Greater Cleveland area, with almost 16,000
employees in six plants and offices.