New Center For Disabled Bridges the Generations

Silver Spring Facility Fosters Interaction

At Easter Seals Disability Services' new center in downtown Silver Spring, padded rocking chairs are nestled among the toys in the child development classroom. Flexible rubber material cushions the floor of the outdoor playground, and wide door frames allow easy navigation from one room to the next.

These features aren't just for kids -- the 42,000-square-foot Inter-Generational Center is the first facility in the region custom-built to provide services for children and adults with special needs.

"There is going to be life in that center," said Lisa Reeves, president and chief executive of the Easter Seals Greater Washington Baltimore Region. The facility expects to serve 1,500 children, adults and seniors in the region annually.

During an open house this month at the center at 1420 Spring St., Reeves described the experience of a woman who had visited the child development program as she considered services for her autistic daughter. Initially apprehensive about the senior program on the other side of the lobby, the woman quickly warmed to the idea after a tour, Reeves said.

"Now she is going to bring her mother out of a nursing home in Miami to be here with her autistic daughter," Reeves said. "Her mother can see her daughter grow up."

The facility is known formally as the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Inter-Generational Center. The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, based in Owings Mills, Md., helped provide funding for the center.

Its child development and adult day-care programs will be separate, but the staff will encourage daily interaction among participants whose ages range from 4 months to more than 100 years.

The child development program will enroll children with and without disabilities, according to Marilyn Ricker, vice president of the center's child development programs and services.

"Typically developed kids will learn to be comfortable and understanding of people with special needs at an early age," Ricker said. "The last thing we want to see is a child with special needs being isolated."

Isolation is of little concern to Marti Clark, a 14-year-old with Down syndrome who has participated in Easter Seals programs since she was 3 months old. Marti talks comfortably about her loves of coloring and math.

"I am truly overjoyed by what a wonderful facility this is," said Fern Clark, Marti's mother. "I've stood on this street corner many times, and it's never meant more."

The center is a comfort to both her parents. "Now I'm secure in knowing that as [Marti] grows older, she can continue to be in the care of people who get it," said Marti's father, William Clark.

The adult program is equipped to serve seniors and adults with a variety of health problems, including Alzheimer's disease, visual impairment, frailty, depression and mobility limitations. The program also includes a resource center for family caregivers and an assistive technology and therapy center, where seniors can master tools that will allow them to continue to perform daily activities as their mobility declines.

"When I come through these doors . . . I can live and age gracefully as a member of this community with a disability," said Eastern Seals board member Juliette Rizzo, who has three forms of arthritis and uses a wheelchair.

The center is the result of more than $16 million in donations, including contributions from the Montgomery County, state and federal governments, individuals and companies such as Safeway and Freddie Mac.

"I knew it would be good, but this has gone far above my expectations," Maryland Del. Sheila E. Hixson (D-Montgomery) said of the facility during a tour for donors Sept. 10. Hixson, state Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery), County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) secured more than $6 million in public funding for the project.

"Our store managers and checkout clerks want to bring their colleagues by to see the dollars at work," said Gregory A. TenEyck, Safeway's director of public affairs and government relations. Safeway held a fundraising campaign in April and a golf tournament in June to raise more than $1 million for the center.

The child development program opened the first week of September, and the adult program will be fully operational by the end of the month.