Easter Seals Western Pennsylvania works in partnership with people with disabilities and their families to create solutions that change the lives of children and adults with disabilities and special needs.

Description:
Easter Seal's purpose is to promote the independence, dignity and equality of people with disabilities. To accomplish this end, Easter Seals provides comprehensive, community based programs designed to promote the optimum physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of persons with disabilities. The Allegheny Division provides two children's programs - an early intervention program for infants and toddlers and their families, and an approved private school program, for children from birth to eight years of age. These programs include physical, occupation and speech-language therapies, special education and social service. A Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program for adults includes work adjustment services, on the job training, sheltered employment and supported and competitive job placement services. The speech and Language Therapy Program offers individual evaluations and therapy to individuals, from two years of age to senior citizens, with speech and/or language disorders. Our three Adult Day Service Sites in the area provide daily care to older adults and adults with disabilities and other special needs.

Easter Seals provides a variety of areas of employment and job training for people with disabilities. In the Division's large Work Center there are two primary areas or employment: production - where products are manufactured under contracts with the federal government; and Business Services, a full service bulk mail operation. Consumers are also trained and work as clerical assistants, data entry operators, receptionists/switchboard operators, in housekeeping and building maintenance jobs, and in food preparation and service.

In addition to direct client services, Easter Seals provides community services which include a Preschool Screening Program (speech, language, vision, hearing, tympanometry and acoustical otoscopic) and, under contract with ACCESS, Easter Seals' physical therapists test and certify individuals applying to use this door-to-door accesible transportation system. Technological assistance, advocacy, public education, and government and public relations are another dimension of Easter Seals' efforts to promote the independence of people with disabilities and their acceptance into the mainstream of society.

History:
The National Easter Seal Society was founded in 1919 in Elyria, Ohio by a businessman, Edgar F. "Daddy" Allen.

After his son's death in 1907 in a tragic streetcar accident, Allen left the world of the entrepreneur and entered the world of philanthropy. His son died because there was no hospital in Elyria. Always a man of vision and action, within two weeks Allen had raised $105,000 to build a hospital. The Elyria Memorial Hospital opened October 30, 1908.

When a member of the surgical staff at the new hospital brought a little boy with disabilities to Daddy Allen to see if something could be done for him, he sparked Allen's life long interest in children with disabilities. When Allen learned that there were 700 children with disabilities living in the three county area surrounding Elyria and that there was no care or services available for these children, he spent the next three years bringing the problem to the attention of as many people as possible and raising funds for a new hospital specifically for their care and treatment.

After a gift of $25,000 was received from Mrs. W. N. Gates as a memorial to her husband, construction began on the W. N. Gates Hospital for Crippled Children. The Hospital was empty for nearly three months.

Knowing that the hospital could benefit many children, Allen was determined to solve this new challenge. He soon realized a number of things: parents needed to be persuaded to accept treatment for their children, a broad based organization was needed to help him achieve this goal, and a way was needed to offer treatment that minimized the trauma of separating children from their parents.

In his memoirs Edgar Allen write: "I had to get in back of the movement a clientele. I tried the Chamber of Commerce, Y.M.C.A., Women's Clubs, etc. but didn't seem to get very far.

Sam Squires at the time was going to start a Rotary Club so in desperation I joined it and hitched my kite for crippled children to Rotary."

The Rotary wholeheartedly supported Allen's cause and, in 1919, the Ohio Society for Crippled Children was organized with Daddy Allen as the first president.

Then as now funding was a challenge. In 1934, the first Easter Seal campaign was launched with seals designed by J. H. Donahey, a cartoonist at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. This first sale of Easter Seals raised about $47,000 and ultimately became the source of the name of our organization.

In 2004, Easter Seals celebrated its 85th Anniversary. A network of 135 affiliate societies serving all fifty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, Easter Seals affiliates operate nearly 500 program service sites that provide comprehensive rehabilitative services to over 1,000,000 people each year.

For the 24th consecutive year, the National Health Council cited Easter Seals as the nationwide leader among its member voluntary nonprofit health-care organizations for the percentage of program dollars spent on direct client service. Money Magazine, ranked Easter Seals among the top ten charities in the country, and the #1 health-care agency, that consistently spends more than 70% on good works.

The Pennsylvania Easter Seal Society was founded on January 31, 1923 at a meeting in the Fort Pitt Hotel in Pittsburgh.

The Easter Seal Society of Allegheny County was founded in 1934 and formally incorporated in 1935. Our society, unlike many that were organized by Rotarians, was begun by Kiwanians. They organized initially to provide transportation services to children with disabilities to and from area hospitals for surgery and brace fittings.

This eventually led to the opening of a clinic for children with cerebral palsy and later a school which was located in classrooms on the South Side. As these children grew up, the Easter Seals' staff became painfully aware that there was nothing productive available for these young adults to do. in the tradition of Daddy Allen, once a need was identified, action was taken.

A facility was opened on Wood Street in downtown Pittsburgh where these young people worked on hand made crafts which were sold to the public. Several years later, a Newspaper Clipping Service was started that employed adults with disabilities.

On March 16, 1995 The Easter Seal Society of Allegheny County merged with the Easter Seal Societies of Cambria/Somerset, Clarion/Jefferson, Fayette, and Venango Counties. The new name is Easter Seals Western Pennsylvania. The organization serves 20 counties and over 19,000 people in the western region of the state. The Allegheny County division serves as the corporate headquarters for Easter Seals Western Pennsylvania, located at 2525 Railroad Street in the Strip District.

Contact people:

Michelle Wahl, Development Specialist, (phone), (email) Karen Kavic, Vice President, Development, (phone), (email) Dee Lesesne, Development Assistant, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (412) 281-9333

Address:

2525 Railroad Street Pittsburgh, PA 15222 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.westernpa.easterseals.com

Directions:

Easter Seals Western Pennsylvania has many different locations including our downtown facility. Please call to get directions to whichever facility you are visiting. For maps or information, please see http://www.portauthority.org/ride/ride.html

Miscellaneous Information

Are court referrals welcomed?
	No
Is act 33/34 clearance required of your volunteers?
	Yes