STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Back when Sebastian Angelico was first starting out, he couldn’t find anyone willing to give him a loan to open his own business. So he promised himself one thing: “If I ever have money, I am going to help people.”

A few decades later, the baker’s son, now semi-retired from the commodities industry, made good by founding the Emergency Children’s Help Organization, or ECHO, in Charleston in 2008.

“When we give money to a person, we don’t think it’s a lot, but to them, it’s a big thing,” said the 68-year-old Angelico, an Annadale resident who was a longtime executive board member with Meals on Wheels of Staten Island.