It’s Cardboard!
Furniture Customized For Special Needs Kids
by Chiara Coletti
As woodworking shops are dismantled throughout the school system, the one on the third floor of P.S. 186 in the Bronx “is coming back to life like a secret garden,” says Alex Truesdell, executive director of Adaptive Design Association (ADA), which creates – and teaches school staff to create – customized heavy cardboard furniture and equipment to help children with disabilities get more out of school.
Part of District 75, P.S. 186 began its project with ADA a year ago after members of its clinical team raved to Assistant Principal Vito Faccilonga about the workshops they’d attended at ADA’s colorful storefront and studio on West 36th Street in Manhattan. Mr. Faccilonga immediately went to Principal Ava Kaplan and they eked some budget dollars for a long-term project. As Ms. Truesdell says, “Where the people lead, the leaders follow.” With a student body that reflects the gamut of physical and emotional disabilities, P.S. 186 was an ideal site. Overnight, ADA filled the woodworking shop with new tools and sturdy cardboard. An orientation was held with trainers showing different kinds of equipment adaptations that could be developed to make a child successful. By the end of the school year, 43 educationally- and therapeutically-sound cardboard adaptations had been built for 21 students, including special standers that promote independent weight bearing, writing easels to develop fine motor skills and straddle perches to increase core and leg muscles. Every item was invitingly painted in bold colors.
“Can I make something for someone?” became a common refrain from P.S. 186 eighth graders, many who have behavioral issues. The staff developed a plan that allowed them to work on design and production up to 50 minutes a week if
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LEFT: From left, Alex Truesdell, founder of Adaptive Design, Ava Kaplan,
PS 186 Principal, and Vito Faccilonga, Assistant Principal. |
they earned enough good behavior points. “We like to move the students into multiple modalities,” says Principal Kaplan. “We move beyond the expected.”
Two more schools, P.S. 138 in Manhattan and P.S. 10 in the Bronx, are becoming host schools this fall. Meanwhile, clinical professionals from all five boroughs show up on West 36th Street for a variety of reasons. For one, occupational therapist Agata Gately from PS 138 in Manhattan has been working on a sensory gym for her school. She says, “I want to make something unique that fits the specific needs of each of our children.”
She is working closely with ADA staff members Lille Troelstrup, Antoinette LaSorsa and Kenia Cornelio and a remarkable volunteer, Tony Sharkey, a master woodworker who turned his genius to cardboard carpentry in the 60s and 70s. “It was a hippie thing,” he says. “Environmentally responsible and inexpensive.” He was thrilled to find that the art had come back into favor for use with severely disabled children.
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Adaptive Design’s midtown Manhattan store.
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“So often, with these children, we are addressing social justice problems,” says Ms. Truesdell, who has long been concerned with social issues.
Both she and Antoinette LaSorsa were hired for this project by Women Care in 1998 to provide meaningful internships for women on parole or probation.
Ms. Truesdell also brings her social awareness and creative skills to as many poor countries as possible around the world. Now, she envisions training returning U.S. war veterans for new careers in cardboard carpentry and design that will be used among the disabled of every age.
When Alex Truesdell talks about her work, she is animated and full of conviction: “P.S. 58 on Staten Island has a child named Raven who walks on her arms. We created special stairs for her [to increase her mobility]. There’s a solution for everything.”
For information, contact Adaptive Design Association at (212) 904-1200 or email info@adaptivedesign.org.
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Mr. Faccilonga helps Sidney Johnson, 9, play a xylophone.
She’s sitting in a custom-made chair that she received in December.
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Right, Alex Truesdell, Adaptive Design’s head, teaches the basics of cardboard carpentry to middle schoolers at PS 186. The kids are going to help build furniture for the younger children in the fall. Left, Ian Lynton, a teacher helps out.
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