IN S PI RAT I O N
SYLVAN SCHWAB The Booboo Zoo An interview With Kat Mische Elle
Sylvan, you have been on a heart stretched journey. Share with us how this all began for you?
Always do the right thing.” That was the first time I remember him really connecting with me, and it has stuck with me to this day.
was born and raised in Chicago. My mother did not want animals in the house. She kept a nice, clean, sanitary household. Both my parents were immigrants from fleeing Nazi Germany, and they were grateful to be in America.
When I finished college in 1977, I had a friend who was going to Hawaii on business and then to visit the Island of Maui. He asked me if I wanted to come along because he had two tickets, and I happily went with him.
When I graduated high school, I went to college at the University of Illinois, away from home. My father was a dock worker and the strong, silent type. But when I was getting ready to leave for school, he took me aside and said, “I want you to remember one thing, and that’s to “Always do the right thing.” I said, “Yeah, sure.” He said, “No! listen.
I fell in love with Maui before we even landed. He and I took the very first hydrofoil boat trip from Oahu to Maui. On that boat, it was the two of us and a troop of hula girls. I saw Maui in the distance, and I said to myself, “Well, okay, I’ve got to start something new.” I had a degree in photography and what better place to do something with it? When I did move to Maui, the people I came with had lived in Hawaii I NSPI REDS U CCES S M AGA ZI N E .COM
109
