This year marks the 20th anniversary of the McDonald's Texas Invitational Basketball Tournament. What an awesome two decades it has been. When you think of the MTI, you think of exciting high school basketball, amazing community and business involvement and a tremendous impact on teachers and students of our area.
Pasadena, Texas, is home to the prestigious McDonald's Texas Invitational. This event features 48 boys teams and 32 girls teams and is one of the largest events of its kind in the country.
The leadership for the tournament is provided by a 30-member steering committee, composed of leaders from the business community, education and government. This group meets monthly throughout the year in order to be attentive to every detail that must be handled to produce a first-class tournament.
The business community is a support vein providing financial backing and each year contributes over $250,000 to the education foundations in Pasadena ISD and Deer Park ISD. Approximately 400 volunteers from the community, schools, and businesses contribute their time.
This community-wide event is more than just a high school basketball tournament as it showcases the positive aspects of the city, its businesses and the school district. All net proceeds from the tournament are donated to the education foundations to sponsor mini-grants benefiting the teachers and students of Pasadena and Deer Park. As of this date, the MTI has donated more than $3 million in support of our local districts.
Each year the tournament grows. This year should be no different as we expect record crowds while highlighting the good things about our community, and assisting the students in our schools reach their full potential.