In August 1997, 25-year-old Danny Sayre fell 500 feet to his death while hiking in the back of Pololū Valley on the island of Hawai’i. The Hawai’i Fire Department’s rescue team made repeated attempts over 10 hours to recover his body using their MD 500, but failed. Three men from the fire department then volunteered their time to complete the recovery, which required entering a very narrow and densely forested area.
The downwash from the MD 500’s rotor blades shredded tree limbs as the aircraft descended, lowering two rescuers in a Billy Pugh net to retrieve Danny’s body.
“We realized at the time the rescue workers, including the pilot, had put their lives on the line for us as they attempted to recover Danny,” said Laura Mallery-Sayre.
To honor the members of the Hawai’i Fire Department who put their lives on the line with bravery and compassion in others’ darkest hours Mallery-Sayre, a dental hygienist, and her husband Frank Sayre, a dentist, established the Daniel R. Sayre Memorial Foundation. With Mallery-Sayre at the helm as executive director, what began as an annual awards ceremony organization soon morphed into a fundraising foundation, with a focus on helping the county’s fire department acquire much-needed equipment and training.
The Sayres learned the reason it took so long and was so dangerous to recover Danny was because the department lacked the rescue ropes to perform the work. With 94 percent of the department’s budget going toward personnel costs, there was very little funding available for the rescue teams.
“We made it our mission to help purchase the equipment the Hawai’i Fire Department could not buy,” Mallery-Sayre said. “We started the foundation with an annual awards dinner and fundraiser, calling on our community to support our fire department. That was 27 years ago, and since that time we’ve raised over $40 million and have helped supply equipment and training beyond what we ever imagined.”
On a Mission
The foundation accepts requests from the department, raises the funds, and gifts the requested equipment and training. It didn’t take long before the couple learned the department’s needs and issues ran much deeper than ropes, carabiners, pulleys, and rescue training.
“It felt like we were pealing an onion,” Mallery-Sayre explained. “When we started, we learned the need was so much bigger than we initially thought. The department was trying to do rescues with 40-year-old scuba tanks and 20-year-old regulators. There were boats that didn’t work. Not every station had a Jaws of Life. It has been a very educational process learning about not only funding shortages but also how to procure what our fire department needs.”
The Hawai’i Fire Department serves Hawai’i County — the Big Island of Hawai’i — with 21 fire stations. It employs firefighters, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), trained rescue personnel and the county’s lifeguards, in addition to administrative personnel. It operates fire trucks, fire engines, off-road firefighting vehicles, ambulances, ATVs, jet skis, helicopters, and more to protect a permanent population of about 200,000 people in an area the size of Connecticut. Its territory ranges from hundreds of feet below the ocean — where it rescues divers — to 13,803 feet (4,200 meters) above sea level at the peak of Mauna Kea. Its two largest airports are between 170 and 210 miles (270 and 340 kilometers) from the closest level 1 trauma center in Honolulu.
For all of that, its 2024 annual operating budget is just about $147 million, with only $648,000 earmarked for equipment. That equipment budget is about double what it was allocated in 2023.
Fortunately for the foundation, several financial benefactors share the Big Island as their home. Many multi-millionaires and billionaires who live on the island have a vision and vested interest when it comes to protecting lives and property in Hawai’i. The annual fundraising events are successful and a number of generous benefactors step in to help with special requests.
“Over the years, the foundation has graduated from purchasing ropes and carabiners to ATVs, rescue boards, jet skis, firetrucks, rescue boats, and now helicopters,” Mallery-Sayre said. “We are very fortunate to have some very generous partners who are well connected to help add to the donations.”
Safe Helicopters
In 2019, a firefighter approached Mallery-Sayre with a personal request that tugged at her heartstrings.
“The department at the time had two helicopters — an MD 500 that mainly performed the search-and-rescue and firefighting [role], and a Bell 206 that was used for EMS [emergency medical services], but also helped with searches and firefighting when it could,” Mallery-Sayre recalled. “The 206 was old. It had been donated 28 years earlier and we’d helped fund repairs in the past. This firefighter told me the team was concerned about flying in the 206 on some of the more dangerous missions. We’d had rescue helicopter crashes in Hawai’i before. He said, ‘We’re all concerned we’re not going to get back to our babies.’ Well, that did it for me. I asked what they wanted and set about asking for support.”
The fire department researched various aircraft, eventually settling on an EMS- and long-line-equipped Airbus H125. The aircraft offered the power, stability, capabilities, and safety margin required to provide patient transport across the island and even to Honolulu if needed. It could support long-line rescue and firefighting operations, and could even operate at the top of the island’s three sacred volcano peaks.
With a proposal in hand, Mallery-Sayre called past benefactors. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff — a resident of Hawai’i — committed to help and began recruiting his circle of contacts. Between Benioff and his circle, other local benefactors, and a $250,000 advance from the county on what would be recuperated when the Bell 206 was sold, the H125 was funded and ordered in 2021.
The helicopter purchase process was completely new to the Sayres. They credit Airbus for mentoring the foundation throughout the process and helping them get the most for their money. The Sayre Foundation was the first non-profit customer in Hawai’i for Airbus. The manufacturer offered discounts, provided training to the fire department teams at no cost, and guided Mallery-Sayre on how the foundation could directly procure some of the onboard equipment to save money. As a non-profit, the foundation was also able to procure the aircraft and equipment tax free.
On July 26, 2023, in a traditional Hawaiian blessing ceremony, the H125, named Ka ‘Io — the local name for the Hawaiian hawk — was officially received by the foundation then gifted to the Hawai’i Fire Department. The aircraft is painted with many sacred Hawaiian symbols that honor both Hawaiian culture and the people who made the aircraft possible.
Ka ‘Io features a glass night vision goggle (NVG)-compatible cockpit, single-pilot instrument flight rules (IFR) capability, and autopilot. It has a belly hook for long line rescue and fire suppression with a Bambi Bucket, and is configured for single patient transport with an EMT.
Why stop at one?
While at the blessing ceremony last year, Benioff asked Airbus regional sales manager Wayne Woytkiw about the H125’s ability to do inter-island transport.
“Wayne said she could definitely do it, but if we really wanted to be safe about it, we needed a twin-engine helicopter,” Mallery-Sayre said. “That’s when we started talking about getting an H145.”
The foundation’s dedicated network of benefactors and Benioff came together once again, this time funding a $14 million aircraft in two days. The new H145 is on order for delivery in July 2026. It will be equipped for inter-island EMS transport, NVG operation, search-and-rescue, and firefighting, supporting the county’s current H125 and MD 500.
While the foundation and county await the new aircraft, Mallery-Sayre is researching how it will operate. Looking at other non-profit helicopter operations around the country and internationally, she is considering working with a non-profit organization that hires its own employees and operates the aircraft to support the county and the state of Hawai’i, thus establishing a model program that could support an aircraft like it on every island.
Both retired from their dental careers, the Sayres today run the foundation full time; raising funds, writing grants, coordinating with the county and the state, and researching and procuring what the Hawai’i Fire Department needs. They do it all as volunteers.
“We wanted this to be a charity where 100 percent of donations go toward equipment and training,” Mallery-Sayre said. “Frank and I take no salary. We get grants for our operating expenses like computers, printing, etc.”
The Daniel R. Sayre Memorial Foundation changed its original mission from ‘Helping those who help others,’ to ‘Helping to save lives’ as it expanded its services during the Covid pandemic. Throughout those difficult months and years, it helped the county support testing and vaccinations. It also arranged for a benefactor to acquire and fly in a massive PPE shipment from the mainland for healthcare workers. It also set up a Maui Assistance Fund to help the Maui Fire Department in the wake of the island’s devastating fires in 2023.
“The pain of losing a child never ever goes away,” Mallery-Sayre said. “We gain comfort knowing Danny’s legacy will now live on long after we’re all gone. The firefighters tell me every time they go out, Danny is with them. He has had a part in saving so many lives. These fire department personnel are now my ohana, my family.”
