At Your Service
Photo by Lawrence Tabudlo
Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Former University of Hawai‘i athletics director David Matlin is about to find out. He’s trading the stadium lights for a service vest as the new executive director of Hawai‘i Fi-Do, the only organization on O‘ahu certified by Assistance Dogs International.
Matlin has 25-plus years of sports entertainment and management experience. Before he took a top position at UH, he helped launch three major showcases for ESPN Events — the Hawai‘i Bowl, the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic and the Hawaiian Islands Invitational.
After retiring from UH, he joined the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games as director of venue development.
Hawai‘i Fi-Do board chair Dara Fukuhara says she and the rest of the team were surprised he wanted to join their small nonprofit.
“But after meeting him and getting to know him, he has the heart we are looking for and shares the same vision we have of making an impact,” she says.
It turns out Matlin is a dog lover, but it’s the service angle that appealed to him. As far as he’s concerned, his career shift isn’t that far-fetched.
“While moving from UH Athletics to Hawai‘i Fi-Do might look like a leap, the core missions are surprisingly parallel,” he says. “Both worlds rely on identifying raw potential, investing in years of rigorous training and building elite, trusting partnerships.”
That’s not to say he expects his new role to be a walk in the park. Like a good service-dog-in-training, he’s ready to put in the work.
“I don’t think it’s going to be easy,” he says. “I think it’s going to be different. But I’m excited to have the opportunity.”
Hawai‘i Fi-Do has had its share of challenges in recent years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it had to pause its Dining with Dogs fundraiser. In 2023, founder Susan Luehrs retired. Since then, the nonprofit has had three different executive directors. It also lost a program director, a puppy trainer and a few volunteer puppy raisers.
Fukuhara says being a part of Hawai‘i Fi-Do is incredibly rewarding, but it’s also time intensive. The organization does not have a training facility. Instead, it relies on a small but dedicated network of volunteers to house and “coach” dogs for two years.
“I don’t think people realize what a time commitment it is to be a puppy raiser,” Fukuhara says. “You’re not just fostering a puppy, you’re attending weekly training classes and practicing at home and in the community. Then you have to give up your dog to one of our clients. You need to have the heart and dedication.”
Clients must go through a rigorous vetting process to ensure they are matched with a dog that fits their needs. They must commit to continuing to train with their dogs.
Hawai‘i Fi-Do’s skilled Labrador retrievers and labradoodles learn to fetch objects, open doors, turn lights on and off, and alert nearby loved ones when their human has a medical emergency. Pups-in-training also serve as therapy dogs at Princess Ke‘elikolani Middle School, Fern Elementary School, Child & Family Service, and Arcadia Retirement Residence.
It costs more than $30,000 to raise and train a pup, but Hawai‘i Fi-Do doesn’t charge its clients; instead, it relies on fundraisers and donations to cover expenses.
Fukuhara experiences the organization’s impact first-hand. She’s not just board chair, she is a client. Her service dog, QT, is trained to fetch her live-in partner when he is in another room. Fukuhara can’t move on her own and can’t raise her voice to summon help.
“My anxiety attacks have gotten better since QT has learned how to do this,” she says. “I now have peace of mind, knowing she is around.”
Fukuhara was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease when she was a toddler. The rare genetic neuromuscular ailment is “slow progressing,” meaning symptoms worsen over time.
In elementary school, she got by with leg braces; by the time she was a freshman at UH Mānoa, she was in a wheelchair and a caretaker accompanied her to classes because even holding a pen to take notes could be difficult.
“In elementary school, I was really shy and timid,” she says. “I had a teacher once tell me that the only person who could speak for you is yourself. I didn’t get it at the time but when I was in high school I felt physical education class was a waste because I had to go to the special ed class for PE and would end up being the scorekeeper.
“I wasn’t really doing much exercise so I asked to get an exemption and got to take news writing, which was an elective for juniors and seniors. I was a sophomore. I learned that only I could advocate for myself.”
After graduating with a journalism degree from UH in 2002, she got a job at Communications Pacific. This was around 2006, when CommPac was one of the biggest public relations firms in the state. There, she connected with Luehrs by doing PR work for Hawai‘i Fi-Do.
Meanwhile, CommPac CEO Kitty Lagareta recommended Fukuhara to then Gov. Linda Lingle, who appointed her to the Statewide Independent Living Council of Hawai’i. Fukuhara was also appointed to then Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s Advisory Council for Disabilities.
“I got to interact with people of various disabilities and I learned how to work with them,” she says of her time on the boards. “Many ‘non-disabled’ people think we all have the same circumstances, but we all had different experiences and challenges so I had to learn how we could work with each other so all our voices would be heard.”
She had learned to speak up for herself; now she was speaking up for others.
But in 2008, she came down with pneumonia and landed in the intensive care unit. CommPac was downsizing and she was laid off.
“This turned out to be a fortunate circumstance because I didn’t feel like I had the energy and strength to go back to a 40-plus work week,” she says. “This is when I started volunteering with Hawai‘i Fi-Do.”
Later, she connected with others who’d been diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth and realized they had symptoms she’d never experienced. She underwent genetic testing.
“There’s no name for what I have but I know it’s a mutation of the GARS gene,” she says, adding that it’s in the same family as Charcot-Marie-Tooth and has no cure.
Now that she’s in her mid-40s, her muscles have significantly deteriorated, which has weakened her lungs and diaphragm.
“During COVID, I also lost a lot of weight and had to put a feeding tube directly into my stomach because I couldn’t gain weight by eating,” she says. “My strength took a downturn … I also discovered I had thinning vocal cords, which makes it difficult to talk loudly.”
When you hear Fukuhara’s story, many things probably come to mind, but “elite athlete,” likely isn’t one of them. Yet, that’s what Matlin thinks when he hears about the hurdles she and other Hawai‘i Fi-Do clients have overcome with the help of their service dogs.
They may not be scoring touchdowns or winning tournaments, but they are demonstrating resilience, commitment and teamwork — the building blocks of a successful sports franchise.
“When I met with (the Hawai‘i Fi-Do board), I just saw a lot of heart,” he says. “I told them I might make some mistakes but we’ll learn and let’s take some calculated risks and try to do things a little differently but keep that main heart that started with Susan Luehrs.”
Despite its challenges, there are bright spots for Hawai‘i Fi-Do. It relaunched its Dining with Dogs fundraiser earlier this year; Luehrs still provides guidance and expertise; and out-going executive director Katelyn Taua‘a secured an $85,000 city grant.
Matlin says his priorities will be to increase community awareness, expand Hawai‘i Fi-Do’s volunteer network, secure more funding and expand programming.
“We want to broaden our impact, but on the other hand, we make a deep impact with some of (our clients) and there’s such a value there,” he says. “And it actually provides a service to the community-at-large because when people can take care of themselves, that helps the community overall.”
A longer-term goal would be to secure a training facility.
“Currently, we train at public parks,” Fukuhara notes. “But it’s difficult to find a park that’s accessible and with shade and places to sit since our clients can’t stand or walk for a long distance. A facility would also allow us to provide more service dogs because we would have a place to start a breeding program.”
That’s something Matlin might be able to help with, too. After all, he knows a guy who navigated UH through the loss of Aloha Stadium and spearheaded the effort to transform Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex from a practice facility into a Division I venue.
To learn more about Hawai‘i Fi-Do, visit hawaiifido.org.
