Easter Seals Southwest Florida

The Sarasota based architecture-design firm helps breathe new life into aging facility

Easter Seals Southwest Florida is the grateful, excited recipient of a $10,000.00 grant from COBROOKE - IDEAS I ARCHITECTURE I DESIGN, a Sarasota based architecture-design firm. Architect Robert Vecchione will devote $10,000 in design expertise as well as convening a team of other professionals whose combined talents and abilities will bring new life to the aging Easter Seals facility.

"We inhabit a 63-year-old building with all that it implies,” says Easter Seals President & CEO, Ladd Waldo. “The appearance of our buildings completely obscures the incredible programs and services that go on inside our walls.”

When Julie Smith, Director of Grants and Resources for Easter Seals, submitted a grant application to COBROOKE in response to its requests for applications, the staff at Easter Seals held its collective breath. “What a joy it was to hear that we’d been selected,” Smith says. “We are thrilled!”

Mr. Vecchione is meeting with Easter Seals management and touring the facilities to devise a plan of action, triaging greatest needs and helping the organization find partners who can help maximize the results of the project.

One only has to visit the COBROOKE website to see that they have the customer, patient, child, or client – first and foremost in mind. “That exactly mirrors our own core values,” says Easter Seals Vice President of Programs, Kameron Partridge. “Our mission keeps those we serve, children and adults with disabilities, top of mind. Creating a better environment in which they can achieve their fullest potential is an amazing gift.”

The project is underway with Mr. Vecchione attempting to assemble a team of volunteer professionals and Easter Seals, bringing in volunteers from throughout Sarasota and Manatee County. “We are very excited that Easter Seals was a recipient of the firms annual pro bono grant” says Mr. Vecchione. I have spent a good part of my career designing spaces for individuals with developmental disabilities and organizations such as Easter Seals are close to my heart”.