The Fernie Heritage Library recently received a special package in the mail addressed to the Fernie fairies.
The Fernie fairies are a group of girls, aged six to nine, who came together during the spring as part of the library’s Fairytales program. Led by Sandra Summerfield, Community Programmer for Fernie Heritage Library, the girls read fairytales and folktales, and created art projects every week. In the first week of the program, they read a book about mermaids, and decided to write a letter and send a package of drawings to the author who lives in the U.K.
Summerfield said it was a fantastic surprise to open the mail months later and read the author’s response. “She wrote this letter to all the kids and answered all their questions on it, and then sent them this book called the Fairytale Olympics for the kids to add to the collection in the library.”
Summerfield went on to remark, “I just think it’s nice because you look at a book and you think, who wrote that book, or who came up with those ideas, and then you realize it’s actually a real person, and they respond to you. I think it’s really inspiring.”
All of the Fernie fairies were invited to come to the library on Friday so they could see the new book and receive a copy of the letter author Meg Clibbon wrote them. The Fairytales program will start up again this fall as part of the library’s free, afterschool children’s programming.