Company Profile
Easter Seals Colorado
Company Overview
Easter Seals Colorado is an organization that works with people with disabilities across a range of programs, including our summer camp, Rocky Mountain Village. At camp we strive to adapt traditional camp activities and make them accessible to people with disabilities, as well as providing quality respite care during their stay.
Company History
In 1907, Ohio-businessman Edgar Allen lost his son in a streetcar accident. The lack of adequate medical services available to save his son prompted Allen to sell his business and begin a fund-raising campaign to build a hospital 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. Inspired by this discovery, in 1919 Allen founded what became known as the National Society for Crippled Children, the first organization of its kind.
In the spring of 1934, the organization launched its first Easter "seals" campaign to raise money for its services. To show their support, donors placed the seals on envelopes and letters. Cleveland Plain Dealer cartoonist J.H. Donahey designed the first seal. Donahey based the design on a concept of simplicity because those served by the charity asked "simply for the right to live a normal life."
The lily - a symbol of spring - was officially incorporated as Easter Seals' logo in 1952 for its association with resurrection and new life and has appeared on each seal since.
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."
Rocky Mountain Village, the summer camp, was founded in 1951, and has offered camp every year since. We have one camper who has attended camp every year since then!
Notable Clients
Developmental Pathways, RMHS, DDRC
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
Easter Seals is the oldest disability agency in the USA, initially conceived in 1919. Rocky Mountain Village has garnered the reputation of being one of the leading camps for people with disabilities, providing excellent, and in certain areas cutting edge, adaptive activities. For example, our climbing wall is accessible and adaptive. With the right supports in place, forty individuals were able to get out of their wheelchairs and climb the wall.