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Fu Bao Hartle honored as Advocate of the Year as SAIL revives annual fundraising gala
Longtime proponent for people with disabilities, Special Olympics participant and photographer will be presented with award Saturday night
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Fu Bao Hartle had already agreed to help put up promotional posters for Southeast Alaska Independent Living’s upcoming fundraising gala, so when the organization called a few weeks ago he assumed it was about picking them up. Instead, he learned he’s the guest of honor for Saturday night’s event at Centennial Hall.
"I'm pretty excited because I feel like it's like this is a huge honor for SAIL to recognize me as Advocate of the Year," he said in an interview Friday. "I always wanted to be, and I always wanted to tell people my back history about SAIL, and how it's important to Juneau and impacts Juneau’s youth and adults and seniors with disabilities."
He said it’s the first time he’s received an award of such notoriety.
Hartle, 27, a longtime local Special Olympics athlete and advocate involved with several organizations, is receiving the award for efforts ranging from promoting community events to lobbying congressional members on issues such as Medicaid, Katelyn Combs, SAIL’s development director, told the Juneau Independent on Friday.
"Fu Bao actually has been nominated previously and so he's already kind of been in our rotation," she said. The gala was put on hold the past two years due to organizational challenges, but when it resumed this year "we believed that Fu Bao was the perfect candidate for it based off of all his advocacy, not only with SAIL, but statewide, he's traveled to D.C., all these things. I mean, amazing stories that Fu Bao has done. So it was to us kind of clear he should be the one this year and we were excited to highlight him."
Hartle has been a participant for many years in SAIL’s adaptive recreation program ORCA, as well as a participant and organizer of Special Olympics events in bowling, swimming and an annual Law Enforcement Torch Run. He is also a member of the Alaska Key Campaign that engages in disability advocacy at the Alaska State Capitol annually, Alaska Peer Power, and helps with events such as the Alaska Folk Festival.
He cited efforts with the Alaska Key Campaign when asked what he felt were the most significant, noting the group’s work helped advance a law enacted earlier this year expanding access to the state’s Infant Learning Program, which he was a participant in. Legislators also approved an expansion of a restroom at the Alaska State Capitol for people with disabilities that advocates hope will serve as a model for other facilities in the state to emulate.
His mother, Clare Pavia, said she started taking him to Key Campaign rallies when he was in preschool.
"Then as he got older — in grade school, I think — I started taking him to meet with the legislators," she said. "And then, probably when he was in middle school, one time I was out of town and he was with a staff person, and he heard that there was going to be testimony at the finance committee about issues for the Key Campaign, and he just went. He just went in, he sat there, he put his name on the list, he got up and he was like totally spot on."
"He didn't practice. He didn't write anything because it was totally spontaneous and got up in front of the finance committee. It was really cool."
Hartle said in recent weeks he’s been involved in helping the League of Women Voters with election advocacy efforts and an annual Special Olympics bowling event in Juneau, in addition to assisting with SAIL’s upcoming gala. For the gala’s auction he is donating a package with a print, note cards and other items from his Photos by Fu Bao business launched in 2022.
He also has an upcoming exhibit at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum that’s "all about bears," following a trip to the Anan Wildlife Observatory Site near Wrangell, plus a Special Olympics event in Anchorage.
"I am really hoping I can go back to D.C. again sometime soon in the future," he said, citing ongoing concerns about funding for Medicaid, which he has regularly been expressing to state legislators as well as Alaska’s congressional delegation.
SAIL is a nonprofit organization with operations in several Southeast Alaska communities that provides support services and equipment, recreation and community programs, and other assistance to people of all ages with disabilities. Combs said the gala is SAIL’s biggest annual event and it’s mostly sold out with about 240 people coming so far.
"We are looking for unrestricted support for our programs, truly," she said. "Grants come with all these strings on what you can spend the money on and these types of fundraising events kind of fill those holes that the grants won't cover. So, with it being in Juneau, typically all these funds stay in our Juneau programs."
A campaign in Ketchikan is seeking to establish an independent living skills training center in that community, she said. Items at Saturday’s auction donated by Ketchikan businesses will be going toward that campaign.
In addition to presenting Hartle with its Advocate of the Year award, the organization will also honor John Kibbons, a legacy donor for SAIL who died earlier this year, and First Bank, which has been a SAIL partner for nearly two decades and hosts the organization’s end-of-year funding match, Combs said.
Hartle said he plans to thank SAIL for its assistance and encourage others to help the organization, as well as get involved in advocacy efforts on behalf of people with disabilities, when he receives the award at the gala.
Afterwards it’ll be back to doing what earned him the award.
"Keep on advocating and taking pictures also," Hartle said.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
