Allen sold his business and began a fund-raising campaign to build a hospital with community-based services for children with disabilities in his hometown of Elyria, Ohio. Through this new hospital, Allen was surprised to learn that children with disabilities were often hidden from public view.
Blog Archives
2022 – A New Name
In 2022, KESS adopted a new name for its operations and became Easterseals Bluegrass.
1990 – New Legislation
Easterseals actively lobbied to help pass the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA,) which greatly expanded the civil rights of people with disabilities.
1967 – Easter Seals Emerges
The overwhelming public support for the Easter “seals” campaign triggered a nationwide expansion of the organization and a swell of grassroots efforts on behalf of people with disabilities. By 1967, the Easter “seal” was so well recognized, the organization formally adopted the name “Easter Seals.”
1923 – Kentucky Easter Seals Society Founded in Kentucky
In 1923, The Conference of Kentucky Rotarians formed a Crippled Children’s Society, which became Kentucky Easter Seals Society.
2020 – A New Facility
In 2020, the Kentucky Easter Seal Society (KESS) purchased a 170,000 square foot building in Lexington, Kentucky, with the goal of converting the space to suit the needs of the Easterseals programs. Renovation began in 2021 and was completed in the spring of 2023. This new space helped facilitate a new partnership between Easterseals and UK HealthCare’s Kentucky Children’s Hospital (KCH) , which expanded services for children who require complex medical and developmental care. As a part of this partnership, Easterseals agreed to lease space at their Richmond Road facility to UK Healthcare’s Kentucky Children’s Hospital’s Complex Care Clinic, Developmental Pediatrics Clinic, and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Graduate clinic. In 2022, KESS adopted a new name for its operations and became Easterseals Bluegrass.
2021 – A New Partnership
This new space helped facilitate a new partnership between Easterseals and UK HealthCare’s Kentucky Children’s Hospital (KCH) , which expanded services for children who require complex medical and developmental care. As a part of this partnership, Easterseals agreed to lease space at their Richmond Road facility to UK Healthcare’s Kentucky Children’s Hospital’s Complex Care Clinic, Developmental Pediatrics Clinic, and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Graduate clinic.
1965 – Expanding Services
In 1965, Dr. David Stevens, Cardinal Hill’s Medical Director and Chairman of the Kentucky Commission for Handicapped Children, explored broadening and enlarging programs to serve both children and adults with special needs.
1950 – Cardinal Hill
The Cardinal Hill Convalescent Home opened in 1950, when the polio epidemic was widespread. Seeing the need to serve children impacted by various medical conditions, a preschool facility to serve these children was implemented with the vision and help of Mrs. Virginia Creech.
1919 – The Foundation
Inspired to make a difference, in 1919 Allen founded the National Society for Crippled Children, the first organization of its kind. He recruited his Rotary Club to help create a network of programs that would become Easterseals.