It All Started With Grandma
Ed Sultan, whose grandparents founded Easter Seals, carries on a family tradition by serving on the board of directors
By Chad Pata
E-mail this story | Print this page | Archive | RSS |
Del.icio.us
In a historical photo, Duke
Kahanamoku visits with Dani
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Easter Seals in Hawaii, they’re planning a reunion for everyone who has been touched by Easter Seals. It will happen at Les Murakami Stadium on Sunday, April 23. During the seventh inning stretch of UH’s game against New Mexico State, everyone who has worked at or been served by EHS in the past 60 years will take the field for an aerial photograph taken from a helicopter.
Easter Seals’ Billie Gabriel says they’ve had trouble contacting everyone, and are asking people to call 536-1015 or to register online at eastersealshawaii.org
Ed Sultan has much to be proud of with the growth of his Na Hoku jewelry business, now the 15th-largest jewelry retailer in the country. But he reserves his highest praise for the charity his grandparents founded 60 years ago, Easter Seals Hawaii.
“If they were a for-profit business, they’d be written up in all the newspapers and magazines,” says Sultan, who joined the board of ESH in the late ‘80s.
“When I first got involved their budget was for $1.5 million, and Sultan School was helping 25 to 30 kids a year. Now their budget is $13.5 million and the school, which is only one of their services, helps 300 kids a year.”
For those few unfamiliar with the Easter Seals mission, it strives to help children and adults with disabilities to achieve maximum independence.
When he’s not involved at Easter Seals,
Ed Sultan runs the 15th largest jewelry
company in the U.S. Here he’s with
Chance Nahini-Sua and Jeremiah
Mauricio
“Sixty years ago when this started, a kid who couldn’t walk without braces wouldn’t get those braces,” says Sultan, who chairs its Finance and Building committees. “That kid would end up staying in the house and would never learn how to interact in society.”
He cites examples such as Dr. Francis Liu, whose condition would not allow him to develop muscle tone, but used ESH to launch him on to Stanford University and UC-San Diego, where he earned his medical degree.
After World War II, life was rough in Hawaii for the disabled. Future governor John Burns saw the problem and asked for the Sultans’ help.
“The governor went to my grandparents and said there are these kids whom the public schools can’t help and they are falling through the cracks,” recalls Sultan. “So they saw this opportunity to do something good.”
Using an initial gift of $25,000 from Ed’s grandmother Olga, they incorporated the National Society for Crippled Children and Adults and opened a therapeutic nursery school which they temporarily operated in Ala Moana Park.
In 1948, they moved to a permanent home on the grounds of Kauikeolani Children’s Hospital , operating out of one of the ubiquitous Quonset huts of the day, before moving - hut and all - to the current location on Green Street.
It is here they were teaching kids with cerebral palsy how to overcome their disability and how to interact in society. Rather than spending money looking for a cure, they were bettering their lives now.
“One reason I like Easter Seals is the money goes directly to helping people today,” says Sultan. “It is not about research that maybe, someday, is going to give us a cure. It helps people today.”
As its operations expanded, it began helping children and
Page 1 of 2 pages for this story 1 2 >
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS
Most Recent Comment(s):
