From the North Star Community Services organizational history: "A group of concerned women from the Junior League of Waterloo-Cedar Falls recognized that there was simply no alternative to nursing home placement for area elders, and in many cases nursing home care was premature or unnecessary. Under the leadership of a Junior League task force and other civic-minded volunteers, along with the Hawkeye Valley Area Agency on Aging (now knows as NEI3A), who served as the registered office and sponsor, the pioneering idea of an adult day care facility was born, under the umbrella of a newly formed not-for-profit agency, Adults Care., Inc...On September 6, 1977, to reduce school overcrowding at River Hills School in Cedar Falls, and to comply with a recent federal law requiring community integration and adult-appropriate services for adults with moderate-to-severe developmental disabilities, the agency opened the Key VII program, originally located at 209 LaPorte Road in Waterloo (formerly Balko’s Appliance Center and a laundromat). It was called Key VII because it served people in the counties served by then Area Education Agency 7 and offered the “key” to a more independent future."