Hurray for Kid Authors!

By C.J. Hirschfield

“I glow as the night begins to fall.”  -- “From Dark to Light,” by Isabella, age 12

Once upon a time—well, three years ago—Fairyland premiered Turn the Page!, our children’s authors and illustrators book festival. It proved to be a hit, drawing over a thousand people who enjoyed interacting with more than 25 talented bookmakers who did read-alouds and demonstrations and talked about their craft with kids and parents.

A young book-lover considers the selection of books from Laurel Book Store at the 2017 Turn the Page!

For this year’s event – to be held Saturday, May 19, from 10 to 4 – we’ve decided to try something new that we’re very excited about.

The Little Engine That Did

By C.J. Hirschfield

Last week, Fairyland welcomed more than a thousand guests to our first Port Day, in partnership with the good folks who operate Oakland’s popular air- and seaports. Together with its business partners, the Port of Oakland supports more than 73,000 jobs in the region, and getting kids – even little ones – excited about STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) may ignite an interest that could lead to a career in the sciences … and perhaps at the Port.

Many wonderful hands-on activities and giveaways were on the schedule, but the big draw was the Port’s mini container crane that could be operated by the kids. The crane had not been out in the community for a number of years, so we were over-the-top excited.

But just half an hour before we were to open our fairy gates, disaster struck.

You see, although the crane is mini when compared to its huge working counterparts, it is nonetheless 12 feet tall and weighs in at about a thousand pounds. When it was pulled into our grassy meadow area, its trailer sank into the rain-soaked earth and couldn’t be extracted.

The Port of Oakland's mini crane.

Lost and Found on Head Start Day

By C.J. Hirschfield

Editor’s note: On April 20, Children’s Fairyland will host Head Start Day for Oakland Head Start children and their families. We’re grateful for support from Rogers Family Foundation, City of Oakland Head Start and – for chartered bus transportation – the Quest Foundation. To give you an idea of what Head Start Day is like, we’re republishing this column from 2011.

Last Friday we welcomed more than 2,000 Head Start kids and their family members. We were part of their Week of the Young Child Traffic, Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Fair in Oakland.

And what a day it was.

When we saw the line stretching for blocks just before opening time, we knew that, contrary to our predictions, everyone was going to arrive at once. But Team Fairyland was ready.

The Port Comes to Fairyland

By C.J. Hirschfield

Although Star Wars creator George Lucas has denied it, we Oaklanders still like to believe that the AT-AT Snow Walkers from “The Empire Strikes Back” were either consciously or unconsciously influenced by our port’s massive cranes, which are used to move huge containers from ships onto waiting trucks and back again.

Full-size Port of Oakland crane.

Movie connection or no, Oakland’s cranes are undeniably super-cool. And soon Children’s Fairyland will offer kids the opportunity to operate a smaller version of them. It’s something we’ve wanted to do for years.

The Very Best Medicine

By C.J. Hirschfield

What does Doyle Ott, the director of our renowned Children’s Theatre program, do when the program takes a break from summer-season rehearsals? He goes to Vienna, Austria. Not for the Alps or the waltzing, though: He’s on his way to the international Healthcare Clowning Conference.

Doyle has a Ph.D. in Theatre for Youth from Arizona State University and a certificate from the Clown Conservatory. He has trained at Circus Center and has worked with Splash Circus in Emeryville. He used to commute to work on a unicycle.

Doyle Ott in clown costume.

And he has been a member of the local Medical Clown Project for two years, visiting hospitals and shelters to bring “joy and agency” to kids and adults alike.

Recycling Urban Trees

Note: We’re recycling a post that was originally published in April 2010. And we have an update: In October of this year, more than 100 members of West Coast Arborists will return to Fairyland for our third annual Arbor Camp and Work Day. The bulk of the work will take place Saturday, Oct. 13, when six ailing trees will be removed and undergrowth along our fence line will be cleared. In conjunction with this work, we’ll be scheduling a variety of related activities for our guests. Stay tuned!

By C.J. Hirschfield

For more than a decade, three huge redwood logs languished at the back of Fairyland’s meadow and picnic area. I have no idea when the tree was felled, but we had tried over the years to have someone haul the “waste” away and put the wood to good use, but to no avail. Too expensive.

So it was with a huge amount of joy that I watched last weekend as professional arborists from all over the great state of California turned those logs—right in front of the eyes of a thousand kids—into boards to be transformed by those same kids into hundreds of birdhouses that they could take back to their homes.

Arborist at work.

Poop: Gateway to a World of Science

By C.J. Hirschfield

You know what they say about business success: “Always listen to your customers.”

At Children’s Fairyland, we’re always listening. And what do we hear our customers talking about? Poop.

"Everyone Poops," a favorite in Fairyland's Reading Room.