Easter Seals has provided help and assistance to ‘‘individuals with disability and special needs and their families, live better lives for nearly 90 years’’(2009). By offereing a wide range of services to assist individuals with disabilities, Easter Seals brings focus to life challenges and bring forth achievable personal goals. This all started in 1907, when Edgar Allen loses his son in a streetcar accident, due to having a lack of available medical services to save his son. This drives Allen to sell his business and raise money to better equip hospitals which lead him to founding the first organization of its kind known as the National Society for Crippled Children. In 1934, the first ‘Easter Seal’ appears in the U.S. and the movement comes to Canada in Alberta 1945 followed by British Columbia in 1946 and Ontario in 1947. It is incredible how one organization can make an impact on a world wide basis. This is the milestone of the organizations and services being offered to individuals with disabilities, which has made a tremendous impact on how we view these individuals and how we have come to better understanding diverse disabilities. One person can make a difference in many other individual's lives even after nearly a century!
Reference:
Easter Seals (2011). Retrieved March 20, 2011, from
http://easterseals.ca/english/ (Canadian Version)
http://www.easterseals.com/site/PageServer?pagename=ntl_homepage (American Version)
It is interesting to see how most of the time organizations such as "Easter Seals" are created by people who have gone through tough times related to the cause. It often relates to what happen to someone in their immediate family which pushed them to overcome the pain and sufferance and change the situation for many people. The example here with the loss of his son pushed him to make drastic changes in his life but for the best I'm presuming. We can say this, Mr. Edgar Allen was a good man and he made a difference in many peoples lives.
ReplyDeleteKyle