TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Nothing cheap
about Hartley nowA lot of people are thankful that Mike Hartley has left Cheap Tickets, the company he founded in 1986.
Among them, folks at Mid-Pacific Institute, the Aloha United Way, Hawaii Special Olympics and Easter Seals Hawaii.
Around the same time Hartley was selling Cheap Tickets (the company, not its wares), to Cendant Corp., he and his wife, Sandy, were establishing the Hartley Foundation. He is the president, she serves as secretary-treasurer.
The foundation's mission is "to help people who through no fault of their own find themselves in desperate circumstances."
"It's just for Hawaii. We're not looking outside the state," Hartley said.
Since its establishment about three months ago, the foundation has donated $1 million to AUW, $100,000 to the Special Olympics and $100,000 to Easter Seals.
"There are literally tens of thousands (of people) negatively impacted by Sept. 11 and the downturn of the economy," Hartley said. "That's why we decided for that type of need, there are organizations better equipped -- and we chose AUW."
The foundation designated half its AUW donation for Child and Family Services, $250,000 to the Hawaii Foodbank, and $125,000 each to Catholic Family Services and the Salvation Army, he said.
The Hartleys' gift of more than $2 million to Mid-Pac was structured a bit differently.
"When we made the donation, and we gave them stock in our company, the stock was valued at $2 million," Hartley said, "but when they cashed it in, at the time of the sale, they were actually able to get $2.8 million."
The Mid-Pac donation was made in support of the school's Shared Pride Campaign which seeks to raise $12 million for construction of a math, science and technology complex on its Manoa Valley campus.
Plans call for students to use the complex for the study of telecommunications, robotics, lasers, virtual reality, computer-assisted design and engineering, desktop publishing, video production, biotechnology and hydroponics.
"I think they've raised about $10.5 million," said Hartley, whose wife is a Mid-Pac trustee.
She retired from Cheap Tickets, where she had served as executive vice president for finance and "handled employee relations work," about a year prior to the sale, he said. "The truth be known, she was the brains behind the company.
"I'm the one that has the crazy ideas."
What does he do when he's not giving away money? "I'm working on my handicap," he chuckled. In spite of the recent rainy, blustery conditions, "it's still a worthwhile goal," he said.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com