The drum circle was jamming outside the Hermosa Beach Community Center last Friday afternoon, but for the first time in eight years a few dozen familiar faces were missing. The developmentally disabled clients of Easter Seals were no longer allowed to join the Free To Be Me Drum Circle.
Instead, they stood watching on the edge of the circle while others danced and banged on drums. One young man from Easter Seals who moved with a walker managed to join the circle briefly but was called away by a life coach.
The drum circle wound down about the time Easter Seals ended their workday inside the community center, with clients and staff trickling outside to watch but not join in.
The decision to prohibit Easter Seals clients from joining in the longtime circle did not appear to be popular among clients and staff.
One client said he wished he could have participated. “Maybe next time I will,” he said.
“We’re sorry we couldn’t attend,” said Maggie Jimenez, a life skills coach at Easter Seals for ten years. “The majority of people like to go to the drum circle, and I don’t see any reason they can’t attend,” Jimenez said. “Some of the clients really enjoy it.”
Easter Seals in the Hermosa office serves 54 developmentally disabled adults from across the South Bay, and the philosophy of Easter Seals is to help their clients live independent lives as other adults do. At issue is whether the drum circle treats them like children, and whether it’s fair to prohibit Easter Seals clients from participating if they want to.
Easter Seals Program Director Linda Poteet said this week that she plans to meet with the staff and clients in the Hermosa Beach office and would consider allowing those who want to rejoin in the musical event to do so.
“We’re definitely not above going back and revisiting with the group,” Poteet said. “Maybe a few of them are wanting to continue that, and then we’ll surely take that up and see if that’s still an option.
“We really, really enjoy the drum circle, absolutely, no doubt about it, it’s spiritual. It feels good. It’s an outlet, especially after a long week. All those kinds of things are really, really good. I would just respond that it’s very important to the people we support, their families, their counselors. It’s important to everybody in their circle to help them be seen as adults.”
Poteet confirmed that some elements of the drum circle are not appropriate for the Easter Seals clients, including the use of balls and balloons and a parachute. She began voicing her concerns soon after taking oversight of the Hermosa office last September.
In response, Sabina Sandoval, the Free To Be Me Drum Circle director, eliminated the balls, balloons, the parachute and a clown, as well as made other changes— but to no avail.
“We’ve been doing this a long time,” Sandoval said. “They love us and we love them. And we’ve watched them grow, and to see some of them pass away, we have a history.”
Poteet said Easter Seals conducted surveys with clients in the wider organization and within the Hermosa office that indicated their priority was to get a job. “So we’ve made a commitment to them,” Poteet said. “That’s our number one focus. We really want to be able to help them secure that possibility.”
Ironically, Sandoval said, many of the things that Easter Seals considers childlike, such as balloons and balls, are regularly used at her other drum circles.
Sandoval said she also informed students from Del Sol School (formerly via Pacifica) in Manhattan Beach not to attend the circle anymore with Easter Seals clients after Poteet objected. Del Sol, an alternative school of 7- through 12-year-olds, has hosted field trips by the Easter Seals clients at their school for four years.
Giselle Appert, a teacher at Del Sol for ten years and a Free To Be Me volunteer for about five, said the Easter Seals clients look forward to the drum circle where they get to interact with the students they have come to know.
“They hugely look forward to it,” Appert said. “I see them on the street. They say when are you coming next? When are the kids coming? It’s been a really positive thing in both directions.”
Appert, whose mother works as an Easter Seals life coach in the Hermosa office, questioned Easter Seals’ new policy banning the drum circle for all clients.
“I think it is an interesting message being sent,” Appert said. “And that is if you’re going to be childlike and free and interact with children, suddenly that’s not okay for adults to do. It’s just a confusing message, I think.”
Sandoval, a lifelong drummer, formed the Free To Be Me Drum Circle about ten years ago. She runs about 18 drum circles a month, including at the Hermosa Beach Pier, convalescence hospitals, after-school programs in Watts and Compton, an at-risk teen program at the community center, and also at the Chino Correctional Facility and the state prison in Norco, among others.
Poteet, who has worked at Easter Seals for 33 years, said she used to run the Easter Seals office in Hermosa Beach 18 years ago, after which she was transferred to run the San Pedro office. Last September, Easter Seals gave Poteet oversight of Hermosa in addition to San Pedro.
When told that Easter Seals staff and clients expressed interest in joining in the event last Friday, Poteet said, “I’ll meet them and remind them of the surveys we have taken and discuss it with them. It’s what we have decided to do as an agency. We’re not closed to people having a good time. But they let us know they wanted to try different things.”
On July 6, while none of the 54 Easter Seals clients joined the circle, many of the 41 members of the Arc Southbay did.
The two organizations both have adult clients with developmental disabilities, though Easter Seals’ clients are generally considered higher functioning.
Easter Seals and Arc Southbay have office space across the hallway from each other inside the community center, and Sandoval’s drumming was one of the periodic events that brought clients from the two organizations together.
During the drumming last Friday, ARC client Debra Sanders, bound in a wheelchair, swung her arms in dance next to ARC Program Director Mark Rodriguez.
“Where’s Easter Seals?” Sanders asked.
“Where’s Easter Seals?” Rodriguez answered. “They say it’s not appropriate for them.”
Referring to his own clients, Rodriguez said, “They love it.”
Nancy Webster happened to be walking her three dogs past the community center and stopped to watch the drum circle.
“I think they are having a great time,” Webster said. “I think this is exactly what we all need.”
Editor’s Note: An Easter Seals official on Wednesday said the organization’s Hermosa Beach office is not closing, correcting a statement made earlier in the week by a local program director. See below for Easter Seals’ full response. The Easy Reader stands by its story.
