It's All in the Details:
Fabulous Fairy Houses Tour 2009
"Cool, perfectly awesome, amazing, magical, the best, so much fun, fantastic, wonder-full, a feast for the eye and soul, inspiring..."
"We loved it! Congratulations on a fabulous first. We look forward to next year. Great job."
"Ages 16, 7, and 3 all had a blast! Arrived early, 10:30 and left late, 4:30."
"We have looked forward to this for a month. The houses were terrific and we loved the story time, too. Thank you for a great outdoor event."
Before September 26 and 27, 2009, some were not true believers; they hadn't experienced fairy houses before. They didn't know that the building of them would inspire children to read, talk to their grandparents, go outside and look closely at nature, use their imagination, cooperate, play happily for hours, interact with their parents and siblings, and create astonishing engineering and artistic feats from free natural materials found around them. Disbelief has been dispelled. Anyone who was involved understands the great, good power of fairy houses. In educator terms, they support the No Child Left Inside movement to combat nature-deficit disorder, promote interest in science and place-based education through close nature observation, and create hands-on involvement that fosters literacy and artistic expression.
Fairy houses are special little places in the garden, field, and woods that can entice wee folk. They are personal structures that may be inspired by fairy tales, books, movies, school, jobs, or hobbies. Surely no fairy house builder or observer will ever look at nature in the same way again. A hole in a tree, a group of roots, a bend in a branch...all are future fairy houses brimming with possibilities, waiting for someone to do something simple and magical.
On the last weekend of September 2009 visitors of all ages came to the Museum to see more than 30 structures along a trail at the Village Park. Then they crossed a field awaft with magical bubbles to hear author Tracy Kane read from some of her fairy books, and to build their own fairy houses from myriad natural materials gathered in advance for them. The delight of families enjoying the museum and building houses in the garden was palpable. One little girl at the end of the tour was in tears. Her mother anxiously asked, "What's wrong?" She sobbed, "I don't want it to end." Tears turned to squeals of joy when told she could build her own fairy house in the garden!
Credit for the success of the first-ever Fairy Houses Tour in Vermont goes to Co-Chairs Sue Nostrand and Kathleen Willis of Chester; to our extraordinary volunteers; to all of our enthusiastic and talented exhibitors; and to event sponsors Cota & Cota, VTel, Salmon and Nostrand Attorneys at Law, Anne and Tom Grape, and Snow & Lear/Newton Business. Special thanks go to the Windham Foundation and its grounds crew for parking and other facilities help, to The Old Tavern at Grafton for hotel accommodations for Tracy and Barry Kane, and to NewsBank in Chester for printing the colorful event posters and program.
Although the newsletter could not do justice to all the marvelous constructions that were created, your can see here a sampling of those that were exhibited or created on the spot. More photos and information coming soon.
Then please mark your calendars for September 25 and 26, 2010, for the next Fairy Houses Tour. Author Tracy Kane has already reserved the date and said about our first tour, "You had some fabulous fairy architects!"
Let us know if you would like to be involved either as an exhibitor or as a volunteer by contacting Lillian Willis at the Museum at 802-843-2111. We want more people to enjoy this back-to-nature hands-on experience. We urge you to be a part of our next remarkable adventure and to help us spread the word about it to others.
