Easter Seals - A Value-Centric Organization

Ever since I can remember, about once a year, my mother helped me round up items I no longer used or needed (gently worn clothes, toys with which I seldom played), and pack them up and put them on our front porch to be picked up for donation. As I placed each item into the box, I hoped that someone else could love it and use it more than I had.

One of the organizations to which we donated frequently was Easter Seals. Founded in 1919 as, originally, the National Foundation for Crippled Children (the first organization of its kind), the name "Easter Seals" was adopted in 1967 (stemming from an early mailing campaign- volunteers would gather around Easter to place seals on donation envelopes for distribution.)

Easter Seals provides extensive services for children living with autism and other disabilities and their families. They work to provide everything from physical therapy to clothes and toys to those affected by disability, and to create a world in which "each child born with a disability is given the support necessary to participate fully in life ant to have dreams and hopes, successes and achievements." Also, their Child Development Center Network is the largest provider of inclusive child care in the US.

I chose this organization because I believe their values are extremely transparent, and are best embodied by their logo, which features a lily, chosen for its association with resurrection and new life, yet is simple, reflecting on the fact that those whom the organization supports ask "simply for the right to live a normal life."

Charity and selflessness are the values best embodied by Easter Seals. Each donation I made lead me to reflect on my own life and how fortunate I was to have my health and the opportunities afforded by it. Also, giving of one's belongings, without doing so grudgingly or condescendingly, instilled in me the idea of what it is to be truly generous. Something so simple as donating one's time or assets, when truly given from the heart, can be a powerful experience that teaches us to be more generous in our daily lives. I believe that Easter Seals perfectly supports these wonderful values, and will always remain to me a pinnacle of the best of humanity.