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Make-A-Wish for a Pirate Ship
Davey Tree volunteers were humbled to make a young boy's dream come true through the Make-A-Wish Foundation
®
. Ethan,
a six-year-old boy from Massachusetts with complex congenital heart disease, wished to become a pirate and sail the seas in a
tree house-shaped pirate ship. Davey Tree partnered with Liberty Construction Services to make a tree house in which he and
his brother, Lucas, could play pirates together.
Because Ethan deals with severe fatigue, the tree house structure needed to meet certain physical requirements. Natascha
Batchelor, district manager at the Cape Cod R/C office, visited Ethan's house to examine the trees and ensure their stability. When
Batchelor discovered a few white oak trees that needed to be removed, she contacted her crew to voluntarily complete the job. The
crew, including trimmer Alfred Blackburn, foreman Arthur Pinckney and trimmer trainee John Craig, removed a small white oak that
otherwise would be in the way of the pirate ship's future rope bridge plan, and designed a large, maple wood, round tic-tac-toe table.
The pirate ship treehouse, completed in less than three months, is named "The Wish Ship" and includes a captain's wheel, a
slide, built-in binoculars, a pirate flag and fisherman netting. Batchelor joined Ethan—who was fittingly dressed as a pirate—and
his family and friends at the Make-A-Wish Foundation's ribbon cutting ceremony to reveal "The Wish Ship" tree house.
" The Davey Tree crewmembers were thrilled to help out this little boy and work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We live and
work in these communities, so it's important to give back to the community we not only live in but work and thrive in as well."
NATASCHA BATCHELOR, DISTRICT MANAGER, CAPE COD R/C OFFICE
