Every time a new Hyundai vehicle is sold in the U.S., Hyundai Motor America and its dealers make a donation to Hyundai Hope on Wheels. Since its inception 14 years ago, Hyundai Hope on Wheels has donated more than $43 million to pediatric cancer research at institutions nationwide through its Scholar Grant Tour and September Hope Grant programs.

The Hyundai Hope on Wheels Scholar Tour began in 2006 and each year visits children's hospitals across the U.S. to donate funds and raise awareness for childhood cancer research. All stops on the Tour include a Hope on Wheels "Handprint Ceremony," the program's signature event which celebrates the lives of the brave children battling the disease by capturing their colorful handprints on a white Hyundai Santa Fe.

Why handprints? Because there's nothing more personal than a handprint – and part of the Hope on Wheels mission is to share the personal triumphs of each of these children with other childhood cancer patients and their families across the country. Whether it's completing a round of chemo, celebrating a beautiful new head of hair or receiving a clean bill of health, one childhood cancer patient's milestone can be another's symbol of hope.

In 2010, Hope on Wheels expanded its historic commitment to battling childhood cancer in honor of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month (September), with its September Hope Grant program, donating $6.8 million in the form of $100,000 research and programmatic Hope Grants to 68 nonprofit institutions across the country. For its 2nd annual National Childhood Cancer Awareness program in 2011, Hyundai Hope on Wheels awarded seventy one $100,000 Hope Grants to nonprofit institutions, totaling $7.1 million in donations for the month of September alone.

Additionally, in 2011, Hyundai Hope on Wheels made its single largest research grant award in the amount of $10 million to CHOC Children's Hospital of Orange County. The funds are being used for a project focused on pediatric genomics research. The new research center was named, the Hyundai Cancer Institute at CHOC Children's.

Hyundai and its dealers will continue their commitment to battling childhood cancer in 2012 and will officially launch the Hyundai Hope on Wheels Scholar Tour at the New York International Auto Show on April 5 and its September Hope Grant Tour on September 1.