IN MEMORY OF "SONNY" SALTER
Without Maxwell Hillary "Sonny" Salter, there would be no Happy Trails for Kids. He was the heart and soul of our organization, and his support, guidance, encouragement and generosity have directly touched the lives of every child and family we serve. Sonny passed away on July 6, 2010, the day after we began our second annual Happy Trails summer camp session. When visiting Sonny in the hospital just days earlier, he made sure to tell us to "make every child at camp feel like a winner."
Sonny Salter knew what it was to be a child needing to overcome adversity. One of five children raised by his widowed mother in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of New York City, Sonny was only two years-old when his father passed away and just nine when the Great Depression began. He started working at age ten to help support his family, and that need to help others stayed with him for the rest of his life. His drive to succeed in the world of business was matched only by his drive to use whatever resources he had to offer a helping hand to those in need.
In 1993, Sonny's daughter, Pepper Edmiston, founded Happy Trails for Kids, and for the next 17 years, Sonny and his wife Janet saw to it that the program had whatever resources were necessary to help fulfill its mission. In 2009, Sonny's granddaughter Susan Abrams took the reigns of Happy Trails, a fitting tribute to a proud grandpa who'd set a lifelong example of the importance of helping others. With her grandfather's support, Susan founded Happy Trails Camp and ushered in our current focus on children in foster care.
Those who knew Sonny best know that he carried the torch for many causes. He was a man with incredibly large shoes to fill, and the volunteers and staff of Happy Trails for Kids know that we have a tremendous responsibility to carry on his life's work. As we pick up this one torch and move forward in his name, we don't have to look far to see his spirit - it's alive and well in the smiles and passion to succeed that we see on the face of every child we serve.
The entire Happy Trails family mourns the loss of Sonny Salter, and our love and condolences go out to Janet, his beloved wife of 68 years, their three children, Pepper, Michel and Laura, and 11 grandchildren, including Happy Trails' President, Susan Abrams, and Jon Abrams, the Chairman of the Happy Trails Board. We will work each day to continue our mission of being a consistent and enriching influence on the lives of foster children in Southern California, and in so doing, we will do our part in keeping Sonny's spirit alive.
The Sonny Salter Fund
In honor of Sonny, Happy Trails for Kids has established the Sonny Salter Fund to provide deserving foster children in Southern California a range of support, guidance, vocational and educational opportunities. If you would like to help carry on Sonny's legacy, please visit our Donation Page and contribute to the Sonny Salter Fund.