Opening doors

Mallory McFaul checks in on the fairy door in her front yard. She has been exchanging notes with the fairy since the door appeared this summer.

The County is a magical place

It started with a door. A strange, tiny door. It magically appeared in the boulder on the front yard of the McFaul residence in Bloomfield. Mallory, eight, and her little brother, Seamus, six, were mystified. So together with their mother, Louise, they took to Google.

As it turns out, they have a rock fairy. They left a note at the door asking about her, and she wrote back. Her name is Cybyl.

When the Times sat down to speak to their mother, Mallory and Seamus whispered to each other, “they’re talking about Cybyl.”

“She’s not here, she went away,” says Mallory. “Fairies go into a magical place, and they live in little candy houses. Candy mushrooms. She’s just there for the winter.”

Louise McFaul had discovered the fairy door at the Prince Edward District Women’s Institute craft show in July. It was one of a series created by Peterborough-based crafter Heidi McKnight. It was the only item at the massive show Mc- Faul bought for herself.

The tiny door tickled her imagination. When she and her husband mounted the door on the rock in their yard, it was an experiment, to see where the children would take it. They began a written correspondence with the fairy door, discovering the creature that lived inside and details about her life.

Then it struck McFaul that more children could discover fairy doors.

“My first thought was, seeing how my children responded to spontaneously having it appear, the mischievous part of me—the anarchist—was like, imagine if 10 of these popped up and nobody knew why,” McFaul says. “If no one asked permission and no one announced it was happening, like constructive graffiti, I just wonder what that would’ve looked like. And it made my heart sing a little.”

That’s where Awesome PEC comes in. The group of 10 County philanthropists choose a small local project they consider awesome and fund it with $1,000 in cash. In November, Awesome PEC held their second pitch party at the Baxter Arts Centre in Bloomfield. Five people, whose ideas were chosen as potentials by the group, pitched their projects. McFaul’s pitch for fairy doors won the group’s hearts.

“I thought I’d just try it,” says McFaul. “I didn’t think it would be successful because at its core, it’s very frivolous. But it can be made to be so much more if directed properly and allowed to grow organically.”

“We liked that it was something that was going to be free and that people, regardless of their lot in life could enjoy it,” says Lenny Epstein, one of the 10 Awesome PEC members. “We thought it was a project that could be successful under $1,000. And also the presentation was awesome. It captured our imaginations and it made everybody smile.”

Epstein says that although the entire group had strong projects to pitch, they felt McFaul’s was the only one not likely to be backed by any other grant program.

“Luckily, I’ve had people approach me, ‘I want to make a door in the style that I do,’” says Mc- Faul. “Like Vanessa Pandos [of Shattered Glass Studio] has offered to make a stained glass door. Fabulous. I would never have wanted to go up to her and ask for her to give of her time and energy. But to have her offer it means so much more.”

McFaul can see lots of potential for the future of fairy doors in the County, but right now, everything is a possibility. She wants to allow each door to develop its own stories through the communities in which the doors appear. She hopes, eventually, to put together a book of the stories that are created for each door.

Over the next few weeks, watch for doors to appear at the Regent Café and at the Grange of Prince Edward. Mc- Faul is approaching owners of potential door sites, but encourages those who would like to get a door or to create one to be in touch with her at louisemcfaul@gmail.com.

The Awesome foundation will be throwing another pitch party this winter. To be considered, apply for an Awesome grant at awesomefoundation.org/en/chapters/princeedwardcounty before February 1, 2015.