Local History of Southestern Pennsylvania

Frank B. Allen, the son of Edgar F. Allen, organized our local Easterseals affiliate in 1936. Since that time, the agency has been continuously providing direct services to children and adults with disabilities throughout Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties in Pennsylvania.


The keystone of our local organization has always been its rehabilitative programs. Physical, occupational and speech therapy have been provided on an outpatient basis ever since our founding. Based on community needs, the availability of funding, or the agency's changing goals, some early programs are no longer offered. These include a sheltered workshop (1939); a training school offering typing, shorthand and office procedures (1940); a demonstration employment program for homebound adults with disabilities (1950); and a dental clinic for children with disabilities (1951).


Building upon its keystone therapy services, the agency established its first comprehensive physical restoration treatment center in 1943 in Philadelphia. Satellite centers were opened in Bucks and Delaware Counties in 1952, in Montgomery County in 1953 and in Chester County in 1954.


Under the name of Fuhrman Clinic School for Crippled Children, in 1949 the agency began to provide specialized education for children with physical disabilities, aged 5 through 21 years. Now operated as Easterseals Approved Private School, this program continues in four of the agency's centers; Bucks, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia. Enrollment today focuses on children from age three through eight years.


Another major component of Easterseals programs was summer camping for young people with disabilities. In 1956, the first summer day camp opened on the campus of the George School in bucks County under the name, Camp Surefoot. A year later, Camp Dumore opened in Delaware County on the campus of Swarthmore College. Camp Make-A-Friend was begun in 1959 on the campus of the Fuhrman Clinic School in Philadelphia. For Montgomery County Children, Camp Can-Do was established in 1970 at the agency's Lansdale facility. Ending a twenty-year span of camp development, Camp Carefree began serving Chester County in 1976 at the Child Development Center in Coatesville. Due to funding challenges, in 2012 our summer day camping programs were suspended.


In Delaware County, the need for a centralized facility offering education, rehabilitation and medical services to school age children with disabilities had long been apparent. Following an exhaustive investigation, the agency undertook a capital fund-raising drive in Delaware County to obtain funds for construction of a school and rehabilitation center. Named Old Forge School, the facility opened on September 4, 1962. The Delaware County Intermediate Unit provided the education program and Easterseals professional staff provided the medical and rehabilitative services for students and outpatients. By 1967, the increased client population at Old Forge required the building of an addition to the original facility. Today the facility is still in operation but is used exclusively by Easterseals to provide programs and services.


1967 saw the organization of the Paranauts Wheelchair Basketball Team that operated for 14 years. This recreational sports program was available to teenagers and adults with physical disabilities from throughout the Delaware Valley. Participants included amputees, polio victims, and those with spinal cord injuries.


Among the highlights for our affiliate, in 1972 was our first participation in the Easterseals National Telethon. The Bucks County Center moved to larger quarters specially designed as a rehabilitation facility. Individualized prescriptive teaching was introduced into all agency preschool programs.


A major blow befell the agency on March 20, 1974, when a fire totally destroyed the Philadelphia School and Rehabilitation Center located at 59th and Woodbine Avenue. Through the efforts and generosity of a synagogue in the Wynnefield area of the city, the children were back at school within six days. Renovations to the Temple provided temporary housing for the school until a new facility could be built.


Despite the fire, in December 1974, all of the agency's preschool programs were, for the first time, fully accredited for five years by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. This accreditation was renewed in1979. Easterseals also began providing services to children from birth at this time.


At the request of the Delaware Valley Council on Services for the handicapped, the agency become the area's central source for information on barrier-free public buildings. Easterseals staff members played a major role in the publication of the first guide to Philadelphia for people using wheelchairs. The Philadelphia Guide for the Physically Handicapped was published in 1974. Playing a similar role in Bucks County, the agency led a task force that produced Access Bucks County in 1978. Three major facility changes occurred in 1977: the new Philadelphia facility located at 3975 Conshohocken Avenue was completed, the building occupied by the Bucks County Center was purchased by the agency, and the Chester County program moved to the Child Development Center in Coatesville.


In 1981, the agency received a three-year accreditation, the highest accreditation awarded, from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). As a the CARF survey consultant stated, Easterseals "is truly a hardworking, professional organization providing direct services of the highest quality to handicapped persons".


During the 1982 program year, the Montgomery County Center moved to larger quarters in Kulpsville to accommodate an increased preschool and outpatient caseload. The Philadelphia, Bucks, and Montgomery County Centers added specially designed playgrounds adapted for disabled children. Also, extensive renovations were begun at the Old Forge School.


Continued growth of services in Montomery County lead to Easterseals to undertake a major fund raising effort to construct a new center in Kulpsville. The center opened in the fall of 1990 and is today one of our flagship facilities. In 2006 this center was formally named the Tucker & Perry Gresh Center in honor of these generous, dedicated long-time supporters of our agency.


In 2013, Easterseals purchased, renovated and occupied a state-of-the-art center in Bucks County to replace an aging and inadequate facility. This center is formally named in memory of long-time volunteer and staff member, Margaret "Judge" Brooks.


In the Eastereals tradition of responding to unmet needs in the community, the agency began several new services in the last two decades. The agency has significantly expanded its Assistive Technology services that increase an individual's access and interaction with the environment and ability to function independently though the use of equipment and technology. We have also begun providing services to students with disabilities who are part of charter schools.

 

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