Student-built playhouse delivered to Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery

About 20 Spokane Valley High School students arrived at the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery on Tuesday to install a playhouse they built.

Students enrolled in a class emphasizing project-based learning visited the nursery early this year, met with management, and ultimately decided to build and donate a new playhouse.

The students raised $2,500 and used the money to build it themselves. They coordinated the transportation and installation of the playhouse, which included coordinating a crane to come and lift the playhouse over a gate surrounding the nursery.

The playhouse came equipped with toys, furniture, and the signed handprints of the students who built it.

The Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery provides refuge to children under 7 years old for up to 72 consecutive hours and is 100 percent privately funded, said Executive Director Amy Knapton Vega.

It receives about $500,000 yearly thanks to volunteer work from around a thousand different volunteers, the executive director said.