Excerpt from The Toledo Blade article 

April 13th 2019

“Mr. Allen opened the Gates Hospital for Crippled Children in Elyria in 1915. In trying to identify children to treat and educate at the new hospital, Ms. Dunn said, he and others reached out to a network of Rotary Clubs that was just beginning to take shape in the region.

That includes the Rotary Club of Toledo, which was already working toward the same end with Alva Bunker, a young man born without fully developed arms and legs who for years was dismissed as “mentally deficient.” Rotarians arranged for Mr. Bunker to receive reconstructive surgery and care at a hospital near Detroit. After a childhood confined to his home and the alley behind it, he flourished.

When the National Society for Crippled Children organized in 1919, two Toledo Rotarians, Charles Feilbach and Ed Kelsey, sat on the board.

Today, Easterseals Northern Ohio serves 27 counties including Lucas, Wood, and Ottawa.”