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"Access to the
sky, Burlington man creates tree house for children who use wheelchairs." Standing on the rough floorboards of a tree house, a person rubs against nature. Imagine a child sitting in a wheelchair on the same boards, looking over the Mad River Valley on a chilly November afternoon. Briefly, he is king of the castle; she is top of the heap; they are masters of the universe. No windowpane or screen muffles the bird song. The tree bark feels rough the air smells fresh, fragrant. In your dreams Bill Allen, a 40-year-old unmarried, childless financial planner from Burlington makes this dream possible. Allen in conjunction with Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Warren has designed and is building the prototype for a wheelchair-accessible tree house. Allen's Forever Young Treehouses aims to provide these structures to state parks, schools, camps for disabled children and other recreational facilities. Each tree house costs about $15,000, which Allen hopes to raise by corporate and private donations. Allen and a Yestermorrow crew are racing to complete a prototype before winter so prospects may come, see, touch and enter. The structure is a magical floating gazebo. A 16-by-21-foot oval with low sidewalls is held 16 feet in the air by steel rods imbedded 22 inches into three sturdy white pine trees. Their trunks poke through the floor and roof. To be accessible, the tree house requires a certain topography; the structure must back on a hillside. ADA-compliant ramps ascend from hill to platform. This accessibility will appeal to seniors, also, Allen hopes. When completed, the tree house will accommodate eight or more wheelchairs. Children can eat, sleep and watch wildlife there. "A tunnel, it needs a tunnel to slide down and out", observed 11-year-old Anthony Duval. Thursday, Anthony and his 14-year-old brother, Matthew, of Burlington, tested the tree house. The brothers, who attend Lyman C. Hunt Middle School, have a rare genetic disorder. "Anthony is very active he would like to play baseball," says Lili Howes, their teacher, who drove them to Warren. "The pleasure of an adventure like this can override the anxieties that overtake the boys." The jolly Yestermorrow crew weighs in "Tree houses provide a sense of freedom from what's normal," says Waitsfield furniture maker B'fer Burton Roth, brandishing a power saw. "Children need escape. Climbing a tree is such a simple thing, but kids in wheelchairs get left out. This enables them to do what we take for granted." Yestermorrow founder John Connell, lugging lumber, calls the work-in-progress an organic sculpture. "You can't stamp out cookie-cutter tree houses," he says. Getting started The project had simple beginnings. Allen, an outdoorsy urban condo-dweller, saw a coffee-table book about tree houses at a friend's home. His fascination led to building one, then projecting applications maybe a tree-house resort. One night, out of the blue, he decided to donate $50 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation instead of going to Sweetwaters. "I wanted to get involved in something," he recalls. Allen subsequently served on the boards of Boys and Girls Club of Burlington and Make-A-Wish, where he learned how much disabled children crave normalcy. Allen kicked the tree-house idea around for several years before approaching Yestermorrow in June. "When I heard about it I thought finally, the right project (for us) has come along," Connell says. "We teach students how to design and build, but with a tree house, each one is custom." "Bill's tree-house cause brought new life into our school," comments Brooke Cunningham, a Yestermorrow board member who lives in Waitsfield. Arborist Bill deVos of Treeworks in Montpelier selected three trees on the Yestermorrow site to become living pylons. DeVos chose mature trees but allowed room for radial growth. "Wound wood" will grow in around the 1-inch holes bored for the steel supporting rods. Cables surround the treetops causing them to sway as one rather than in different directions. After the structure is complete the joined trees will be stronger than they were separately. "When John Connell first approached me, I thought it was a foolish idea," deVos says, "but when I heard the handicapped part I was totally taken by the idea." Jim Segar knows plenty about altitudes, challenges and disabilities. The Montpelier resident teaches a ropes course at Camp Ta Kum Ta in Colchester for seriously ill children. "We put kids in wheelchairs 30 feet in the air in harnesses. This gives them a different perspective." The results: "Giant smiles, belly laughs, joy they haven't felt in a while," Segar says. Howes pictures children with less-severe disorders than the Duval brothers throwing balls from the tree house to kids on the ground. B'fer Roth envisions wheelchair hockey against the sidewalls. Now that the prototype is under way, Allen can concentrate on placement. Construction of a tree house at Camp Holy Cross in Colchester, the location of Camp Ta Kum Ta, has received preliminary approval, says Peter Wells, director of facilities for the Catholic Diocese of Burlington. The Vermont state parks move slower. "We have talked with Bill about the project a number of times and are considering it," says Craig Whipple, chief of state park operations. State campgrounds have accessible lean-tos, restroom facilities, picnic areas and parking spaces. "Playground equipment is an area we need to improve on. We are working toward that," Whipple continues. Allen will submit grant requests to the Paul Newman philanthropy that supports summer camps worldwide for children with cancer and other serious diseases. He's also considering appeals to Oprah Winfrey and Rosie O'Donnell. Bill Allen, his associates say, is quite a guy. 'Field of Dreams' is my favorite movie you know, 'Build it, and they will come,'" Allen admits. Still, he advances no personal agenda. "I don't know anybody in a wheelchair. (This project) ... just seems like something I ought to do to bring tree houses to people who need them," Allen says. "It just feels right." For more information about Forever Young Treehouses, visit http://www.TreeHouses.org or call 862-9450. Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Warren, a nonprofit organization founded in 1980, promotes joint involvement and close co-operation of designers, builders and owners. Courses run for a day, a week or more. Students stay a local inn while studying a variety of building-related subjects, including building materials, solar and ecological structures, residential design and construction. For upcoming courses and rates, call (888) 496-5541 or visit http://www.yestermorrow.org.
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