Message from the Executive Director

There are outstanding schools for special needs students in the world. But few can compare to Green Chimneys.

Thanks to our farm animals and wildlife — our best partners in therapy — most would certainly say we are among that small, select group of the greatest.

In 1948, nineteen-year-old Samuel B. “Rollo” Ross had a dream to create an environment where children and animals could live together in a farm setting.

Seventy years later, his vision has turned into a globally renowned special needs school with world-class programs in animal-assisted therapy and wildlife rehabilitation.

Green Chimneys is a school that exists for those children and their families who are at an unimaginable crisis point.

For any family that has tried everything for their special needs child, but nothing works. It is one of those rare places where people who have lost all hope, find it once more.

And whether this is a permanent home or a place to heal, our farm animals and wildlife find hope here too.

Green Chimneys isn’t just a school with a farm…it’s a school on a farm. Animals and nature are at the heart of everything we do.

And now we undertake an ambitious campaign to sustain The Farm & Wildlife Center with an initial goal of $10,000,000.  You can help secure a future as great as our past.

You can ensure the home of our children’s most valuable partners in therapy AND safeguard the advancement of breakthrough research that will help unleash the full potential of the human-animal bond in therapy across the globe.

We have 70 years of experience. And every step of the way we’ve proven the success of our approach. But there is still one more factor we need to sustain The Farm & Wildlife Center – YOUR participation.


Edward W. Placke, Ed.D
Executive Director