On the grounds of the Crotched Mountain School, in the small town of Greenfield, an unusual structure is taking shape.
When it's finished, the treehouse will connect eleven separate trees.
It'll have an enclosed clubhouse, and open decks where kids can hang out in the sunshine.
And, it'll be fully wheelchair-accessible.
NHPR's Trish Anderton reports.
*chainsaw sound*
In a lowlying patch of woods at the Crotched Mountain School, a ramp winds its way through maples and oaks.
The ramp slopes gradually, so wheelchair users with limited strength can roll up.
It's wide, so two chairs can pass side by side.
At the end of the ramp you can see the outlines of what will be a rustic treehouse.
�Theres about a hundred feet of ramp, and it sort of meanders through the woods.�
Jim orr is overseeing this project for Crotched Mountain.
The private school serves children with multiple disabilities.
Orr says even though accessibility is the top priority, this structure is designed to be fun.
�The railings will be coated with rough sawn lumber and the treehouse itself will be made of roughsawn lumber, and it'll also have some live edge wood with bark on it so it'll look like something children built, it'll have a whimsical look to it.�
The treehouse won't just look like a tree - it'll feel like one too.
�We'll have a total of four trunks coming thru the floor of the treehouse and out the roof of the treehouse so the children can touch them and feel them. // all the trees have been cabled together by the treeclimbers, so when the wind blows the entire structure sways as one whole unit.�
The design also minimizes damage to the trees.
The idea for the accessible treehouse came from crotched mountain�s students and teachers.
Donald Shumway is the school�s president and CEO.
He says it all started when one student told him she needed a place to talk �girl talk.�
�I wasn't sure what kind of place that would be but then I talked to the science teacher and she said the kids needed a place to study birds and migration. So after several conversations like that we came up with the idea of a treehouse.�
Shumway wasn't sure where to find a designer for the project.
Then one night he came home and picked up a magazine.
Bill Allen's face looked back at him from the cover.
Bill Allen is a financial planner in Burlington, Vermont.
He also happens to be devoted to the idea of accessible treehouses.
Three years ago Allen co-founded an organization called Forever Young.
Its mission is to build wheelchair friendly treehouses.
�The best term I've heard for being in a treehouse is ethereal. It's an experience that's physical and spiritual at the same time.�
Allen believes every kid should have a chance to get up in a tree.
But for someone in a wheelchair, it's hard to even get close to one.
The roots get in the way.
And even though people seem to share Allen�s feelings about climbing trees, he had trouble selling his ideas.
�The first thing we had to do is prove to people we weren't insane. That it was a doable idea, that it was something that could happen.�
But the idea is catching on.
Crotched Mountain will be Forever Young�s fifth treehouse.
Thirty to forty others are in the planning stages.
Planning and fundraising are important, because an accessible treehouse isn't cheap.
The initial price tag for the Crotched Mountain project was about a hundred thousand dollars.
Donated labor and materials have since lowered that figure by about 25%.
*hammering sound*
Some of that donated labor has come from Crotched Mountain students.
Several mornings a week kids saw down trees, strip bark, and do whatever jobs they can.
Often they work with students from a nearby public school.
Crotched mountain teacher Bobbi Oleo.
�They've never even met before and they get together and do a task collaboratively without much intervention from staff and that's very unusual for students at crotched mountain. It's been a wonderful experience for them.�
Construction offers the students a chance to practice what they learn in occupational therapy.
Staffer Betsy DiPrima says it also gives them a sense of accomplishment
�One of the students held up her hands and said look! And they were red and dirty and she was so proud of her hands, that she'd been lifting logs and working so hard.�
The treehouse is slated to be finished by the end of december.
But Crotched Mountain students may be working on another construction before too long.
President Don Shumway already has another big idea in mind: a fully accessible climbing wall.
For NHPR news i'm Trish Anderton.
