ELLENVILLE– About fifty community volunteers stood outside the Center For Spectrum Services in Ellenville this past Saturday, May 16, clad in rain boots and ready to raise a shovel and gung-ho to follow through with the school's vision to build a special playground befitting the unique needs of the thirty kids in their care.

Blown away by the sheer outpouring of community support — both physically, with volunteers clearing the old playground and building the new, and financially, with donors giving personally or commercially — Sandra Brownsey, the program coordinator of the Ellenville campus of Spectrum Services, a nonprofit school serving Mid-Hudson Valley students with autism, spoke excitedly about the new play equipment. The "Outdoor Classroom" as they call it.

"The entire playground has been totally redone with new surfacing, new climb-on equipment, swings and even musical pieces the kids will love," Brownsey said.

As part of following the "Playgrounds as Classrooms" model employed at the Center, a committee of teachers and occupational therapists designed the playground to enhance skills the children are learning — overcoming deficits in social skills, language and play skills created by autism.

"It's not just organized chaos," Brownsey said.

Instead, the children will be learning essential life skills through interacting with each other in a safe, kid-friendly environment. Taking turns, pushing each other on the swings, playing together... all interactions that come harder for children with autism, but are important.

Once the committee formed a design, another committee — made up of school staff, parents, "folks from the village of Ellenville" — worked with Parkitects of Lansing, whose business involves designing park and playground environments throughout upstate, to construct the playground.

This week, the new playground was certified. Next up, a ribbon cutting ceremony will get scheduled for the coming weeks. Already, children, ranging from three to eight-years old, are enjoying their new playground.

"It's been amazing watching the parents and teachers working together," Brownsey said, noting that both Friday and Saturday of last week, volunteers were at the school well before the 8 a.m. construction start time.

The school, formerly the Children's Annex, had a playground, but it was over twenty years old, Brownsey said, and not suitable for the current students on the spectrum, despite being well maintained.

"It was designed back in the day when younger students attended the school. There were two play areas — one for much smaller children, toddlers and babies, and one for bigger children," Brownsey said. So, the team decided to incorporate both areas into one, considering the needs of their current students.

Now that the equipment is set up, it has given Brownsey a moment to reflect.

It's been a year in the making, she said, explaining that it has taken the effort of various fundraising events to make it possible.

While the center at Ellenville was still in the planning stage, their sister campus in Kingston, a much larger school with thirteen classrooms (as compared to Ellenville's three) was overhauling their playground this past fall.

So the monies raised over the past year, from events such as Car for a Cause in New Paltz and Light It Up Blue in Middletown, were going to both schools' play yards. Additionally, Brownsey said, community residents and local businesses, like the Nichols Field Riding Club in Kerhonkson, have been donating along the way.

Fundraising for the playground is still underway with the Center falling $30,000 short of their $55,000 goal, but still raising an impressive $25,000 for their project.

Further raising funds, Cutrone Landscape Supply in Newburg will commemorate their 40th anniversary, which coincides with the center's 40th anniversary in the fall, by hosting a free party May 30 with radio station WPDH 101.5, refreshments and children's activities. A percentage of sales during the event, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, will go towards the Center for Spectrum Services.

Spectrum Services Administrative Director Susan Buckler and Program Director Jamey Wolff started the program nearly forty years ago, in 1976, in a church basement with two students. Over the past four decades, the school has grown... and now serves over 250 students annually in two locations. While programs and buildings continue to expand, their vision — according to the school website — continues to be "brightening the lives of people with autism."