Easterseals Bluegrass is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides an array of programs and services to children and adults with special healthcare needs in Lexington, Kentucky.
We see the whole you. That includes the many different aspects of your life, such as disability.
We are driven to achieve. Those we serve feel empowered to reach for and realize their full potential.
We open pathways to opportunity to help create a more inclusive world.
We are stronger together. Disabilities touch us all, which is why we work with all members of our community to achieve extraordinary results.
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.
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.
In 1923, The Conference of Kentucky Rotarians formed a Crippled Children’s Society, which became Kentucky Easter Seals Society.
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.
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.
In 2022, KESS adopted a new name for its operations and became Easterseals Bluegrass.
