Retired physical therapist Kitty O'Reilly began working with Paul Caouette, a cerebral palsy patient, about 30 years ago. Yesterday, they were reunited at the Easter Seals Hawai'i 60th Anniversary Reunion.

"Oh, it's so good to see him. I've thought about Paul often," O'Reilly said at the event at Cooke Field at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

Caouette's 78-year-old mother, Genevieve Caouette, was also excited to see O'Reilly, the person whom she said helped her son, now 49, learn and grow.

"Paul always said, 'I like that teacher ... she treats me just like a normal student,' " Genevieve Caouette told O'Reilly after giving her a hug and a yellow and black ribbon lei.

For the first time, Easter Seals families and service providers were given an opportunity to reunite and reminisce about how much the nonprofit organization has changed their lives. About 200 people attended yesterday's reunion lunch. They were later treated to a UH baseball game.

Thousands of Hawai'i residents with disabilities such as muscular dystrophy, autism, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, speech and developmental delays, Down syndrome and sensory impairment take part in Easter Seals programs each year. Last year, Easter Seals served more than 15,000 people, said Billie Gabriel, spokeswoman for the organization.

O'Reilly first began providing physical therapy services with Easter Seals in 1972 after working with children with cerebral palsy. She said she has watched the organization grow from serving a couple dozen children in a small Quonset hut to several locations across the state serving people of all ages.

"Certainly people have been helped in ways we could have never imagined," O'Reilly said.

Genevieve Caouette credits Easter Seals with changing her outlook on life and that of her son.

"When a parent finds out their child is disabled, they are crushed," Caouette said. "(Easter Seals) gave me good advice: Just because he is handicapped doesn't mean he can't be a happy person."

Caouette said Easter Seals changed her son's life by not only providing health services but also by taking him bowling, camping and allowing him to meet friends.

"Easter Seals advised me to let him go dancing, let him have fun, just treat him like a normal kid," she said. "I am grateful for that."

Edna Abe, 69, also thanks Easter Seals for the work they have done for her foster son, Stephen Tittle. The Abe family took in Tittle when he was 11 years old, and for the past 28 years Easter Seals has provided health services and recreational programs for Tittle, who has cerebral palsy.

"We never would have been able to do it without them," Abe said.

Tittle currently has a personal medical assistant who comes to the Abe home in Waipahu three times a week to help care for him.

"The work they have done is just tremendous," Abe said.

O'Reilly said that Easter Seals has not only helped people with disabilities, but has also helped families to expand their understanding of disabilities.

"There may be some differences in the way (people with disabilities) move or the way they think, but basically they are a child who should get incorporated into everything children do. It was a real focus to help families to see that," she said.

Yesterday's reunion was also about the friendships that have been forged over the years.

Paul Caouette caught up with his old friend, David Sison, at yesterday's reunion.

They met each other more than 40 years ago at an Easter Seals camp and they still get together often with the organization's bowling league.

"Paul and I — he was a kid brother to me," Sison, 57, said. "We go way back."

Sison credits Easter Seals for the friends he has made and the skills he uses everyday.

"They helped me better myself, to learn how to live," he said.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.