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JANUARY 2023

OUR VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR 2022: JOE LAVALLA

Thank you, Joe LaValla for being our Volunteer of the Year 2022! Joe has deeply embedded himself in our organization and has made many friends along the way! He served as our Board Treasurer and as acting CEO. He helped to oversee the build-out of our Easterseals Veterans Rally Point which opened just over one year ago. And, when there is a need, Joe is there.


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HOLIDAY MEALS FOR OUR VETERANS THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS!

The Holidays can be a difficult time for those who have served.  A few of our Easterseals partners stepped up to help with Holiday meals for veterans.


Mohegan Sun generously donated 30 backpacks filled with a ham and all of the fixings, and also donated an additional 20 turkeys. Our partners at Electric Boat also wanted to ensure that our veteran community had a nice holiday meal donating  45 frozen turkeys. Additionally, our friends at Gridiron Capital provided high end steaks as a main course for 14 Veterans Rally Point members. Thank you to all of our partners for such delicious Holiday donations for our veterans!

GIVING TUESDAY & END OF YEAR AMAZING FUNDRAISING RESULTS

Giving Tuesday fell on Nov. 29th this year and is a national day of giving started back in 2012 in NYC –it’s the philanthropic response to the consumerism of Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. A national day of “giving” to nonprofits on the Tuesday after. This year, in our multi-channel campaign, we featured one of our success stories, Erica Propis, and reminded donors that they “are the key” to stories like this.


We followed up this campaign with an end of year campaign across all channels (direct mail, email, and social media) to provide donors with the opportunity to make a yearend gift. We featured the success story of Cesar—with a testimonial from his sister stating that “Easterseals is the best thing to have ever happened to Cesar.  Thanks to the efforts of our Board of Directors and volunteer fundraisers reaching out to their friends and families, we raised nearly $12,000 with additional donations still coming in.


A heartfelt thank you to our Board of Directors and squad of volunteer fundraisers—we appreciate the successful peer to peer fundraising!

Read Erica's Story
Read Cesar's Story

2023 75TH ANNIVERSARY FOR OUR EASTERSEALS

Our Easterseals celebrates its Diamond Anniversary and 75 years of community impact!



To commemorate 75 years of delivering extraordinary care and programs to some of the most vulnerable in our community, we have developed an impactful communications and fundraising campaign and a robust calendar of events.

Click Here for Full Press Release

MISSION MOMENT VIDEO FROM DAY SUPPORT

Jarrell learns how to connect to Zoom!

Prior to being trained by Easterseals staff, Jerrell had limited digital literacy. Now, with these skills, Jarrell can use Zoom and other platforms to connect with potential employment opportunities during his job search!

 

Click here to see Jarrell access Zoom:

TATE GRADUATES FROM OUR YOUNG ADULT SERVICES PROGRAM

Tate Joseph graduated from our YAS program designed to assist young adults with learning life skills and preparing for adulthood. In his graduation speech, Tate talked about the guidance he has received from Easterseals staff and said, “I learned a lot of cool things here at Easterseals. I learned about writing a great speech, and a personal narrative where I was able to share my life story. I really enjoyed building my own resume as well, while it still needs work, I now have the skills to continue working on it. I recently learned how to take the public bus to and from Easterseals. It was a little confusing at first, but with Sydney’s help, I’m able to feel confident taking the bus on my own, and it’s fun now!  


Tate went on to complete and graduate from our peer support program where he learned the skills to be a support to others thus “paying it forward.” He will be joining us for the next YAS cohort to put his newly acquired peer support skills to work.

Click Here to Read Tate's Full Graduation Speech

NORWICH HOLIDAY PARTY PHOTO GALLERY

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EAST HARTFORD HOLIDAY PARTY PHOTO GALLERY

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DOOR DECORATIONS PHOTO GALLERY

Easterseals showing our holiday spirit with door decorations at all our locations—here are some of the highlights!

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