For 70 years, the United Cerebral Palsy-Center for Disability Services of Joliet has served people with disabilities. Services are currently offered for people living in Will, Kankakee, Grundy, Kendall and Iroquois counties.

Bill Landram of Joliet said his daughter, Elsa, 7, was one of those clients. Elsa died from complications of Rett syndrome in 2024.

Elsa’s physical therapist had recommended UCP-Center for Disability Services for Elsa’s education when Elsa, who was severely disabled and required a wheelchair and breathing machine, was in preschool, Landram said.

Landram praised UCP-Center for Disability Services.

“There was not a day my daughter didn’t come home from school with a smile on her face,” he said.

On Dec. 10, UCP-Center for Disability Services celebrated its milestone with a Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry ribbon-cutting at the UCP building, 311 S. Reed St., Joliet.

The event included a reception for the community, past and present families, staff, board members, and volunteers.

About 50 people attended “to honor all of the work done before us, the individuals we serve and their family members,” said Brian Patel, president and CEO of UCP-Center for Disability Services.

“For 70 years, we’ve been that embodiment of the community spirit to support individuals with disabilities,” he said.

Current plans are to continue programming – which includes a therapeutic day program, community day services program, home-based services and in-home respite program – and advocate on the state and federal level to ensure funds and opportunities remain available for people with disabilities, Patel said.

“Our main focus is to improve everyone’s lives around us,” he said, “and to reach new milestones.”

UCP founder ‘just saw a need’

Patel’s amazed that the founder of UCP-Center for Disability Services – the late Mel Larsen of Joliet – had no connection to anyone with a disability or cerebral palsy, Patel said.

“He just saw a need in the community and did something to make a change,” Patel said. “He put an ad in the newspaper, and four families showed up to that first meeting in his house. … Back in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, individuals with disabilities did not have as many opportunities as they do today. A lot of the work he did to start that was immense.”

Longtime board member Pat Desiderio said that within its first 10 years, UCP opened a one-classroom school inside the former Rhen School in Joliet, and then it rented a building at 1617 Manhattan Road from Robert Reimer.

“There were two classrooms and an office and an upstairs room with another little side room,” Desiderio said. “[Reimer] allowed us to build an addition all off the main floor – three more classrooms, a small kitchen and activity room – and then a bus shelter. That allowed us to open up two more classrooms and have the ability and space for group activities for the adult clients. At the time, we didn’t have an adult program. We had a teen program and an adult club.”

Desiderio became involved with UCP in 1971. At the time, Desiderio was involved with Beta Sigma Phi, which raised modest amounts of money for local organizations, she said. But the sorority didn’t always feel the donation money was put to the best use, Desiderio said.

That wasn’t the case with UCP.

“When we went to United Cerebral Palsy and said, ‘We’d like to donate money,’ Gretchen Lance opened the bottom drawer, took out a folder and took out a list and asked, ‘What would you like to buy?’” Desiderio said. “I was so impressed that they had a list of things they needed and what our money could go toward.”

‘Always willing to help’

By the late 1970s, Desiderio was a UCP board member, and she has remained a board member for most of that time.

More expansions to UCP followed after Michael Hennessy became executive director in 1982.

“We rented a school – Cherry Hill School – and then we ran the adult programs out of a building at the corner of Broadway and Western Avenue,” Desiderio said. “And from there we went to Reedswood, where we had the adults. And half also went to Raynor Park School. When we bought the Reedswood building [in 2003], we brought everyone back under one roof.”

In 2008, the nonprofit became UCP of Illinois Prairieland to better represent the service areas outside of Will County.

And then it became Center for Disability Services in 2014 as programs and services expanded to serve people with various intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Executive directors through the years include Joanne Rinker, Gary Dye, Geoffrey S. Obrzut, Samuel Mancuso, Jim Mullines, Jennifer Gabrenya, Randy Chapman, Frank DiBartolomeo and Michael Hennessy (who returned to UCP-Center for Disability Services in 2020).

Former UCP board member Larry Burich served as interim executive director several times. Pam Heavens, executive director for the former Will Grundy Center for Independent Living, also served as interim director.

Patel became UCP-Center for Disability Services executive director in 2023.

In 1995, Joliet Junior College chef instructor Fred Ferrara began the Great Chefs Tasting Party and Auction fundraiser, modeled after a similar fundraiser for United Cerebral Palsy in Florida, in which Ferrara participated when he lived there.

Great Chefs netted $85,000 in 2024, which paid for a new gym floor, Patel said. The 2025 event helped provide respite care.

Landram said the agency provided specialized equipment for Elsa. And after Elsa died, Landham donated all of Elsa’s educational belongings and physical therapy equipment to the agency “without a single thought,” he said.

“Elsa’s whole start was tough from the word get-go,” Landram said. “Fortunately, the school was great for her. The staff was great for her, willing to help the families out whether school was in session or not. They deserve all the credit in the world.”

For more information, visit ucp-cds.org.