Easter Seals Colorado Wings remodels facility to add sensory room without adding space

By Shelley Widhalm

Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Vanessa Cox, a participant at Easter Seals Colorado Wings, a provider of day programs for developmentally disabled adults, shows one of the paintings she created there. The agency is in the process of remodeling, which will include new shelving in the art room to hold supplies and artwork. (Jenny Sparks / Loveland Reporter-Herald)

Katie Dockery shook a sparkly, purple pompom Thursday to invoke touch, sound and sight in the new sensory room at Easter Seals Colorado Wings.

Dockery, director of the day program for adults with developmental disabilities, pointed out a lamp with colorful lights, the bright pictures on the walls, the beanbag and couch, and a list of items that stimulate the senses, such as leis, beads and felt strips.

"All of the stuff we have in here stimulates your senses, except for smell, because it can be overwhelming," Dockery said, explaining that an activated sense of smell can bring on seizures for some of the day-program participants.

The sensory room is among the list of remodeling projects underway at the Easter Seals facility, 1656 Topaz Drive. Work started mid-February and is expected to be finished at the beginning of May prior to an open house at 4-6 p.m. Wednesday, May 7.

"We just changed around the layout we do have," Dockery said.

The $17,000 project paid with $7,000 in donations and the rest from Easter Seals provided for a joint restroom and changing room, new flooring and painting, and finishing the upstairs area with carpeting, paint, blinds and furniture for a supported employment center.

The supported employment center, which spans 400 square feet, will offer participants job coaching on getting and keeping a job, plus placement services in job enclaves, where a group of up to eight people collectively will do a job together to learn job skills. A job enclave is already at work at the ReStore in Loveland with participants earning money based on their performance.

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Easter Seals Colorado Wings remodels facility to add sensory room without adding space