Nature park fundraiser in Sewickley Heights
Do you believe in fairies? If so, two events this weekend provide habitats for the magical spirits.
A “Leave Your Wings at the Door” event at 7 p.m. today is a fundraiser auction of miniature houses created by local artists at the Dundee Farm Barn in Sewickley Heights to benefit the Mary Roberts Rinehart Nature Park in Glen Osborne, often referred to as the “Fairy Park.” The event supports the park.
Saturday, the park hosts its third annual free family event to create tiny woodland homes in the park of old growth trees and perennials native to Western Pennsylvania. There will be a 30minute lecture by fantasy artist and author Les Polinko of Verona at 1 p.m. to offer tips on how to build a house that would be inviting for a fairy to move into.
“Oh, these houses are so much fun. When we approached people about making them, they gave us resounding support,” said Natasha Green, who at one time lived in the house that overlooked a neglected ravine filled with garbage and concrete debris from road construction. In 2006, the Quaker Valley School District sold the parkland for $1 to a community group that organized and opened it to the public four years ago.
The park is named for Mary Roberts Rinehart, a mystery writer and World War I journalist who reported from the front lines. A century ago, she lived in Cassella, an estate that once stood nearby. It is also known as the “Fairy Park” because of the wroughtiron portrait of a fairy at the entrance, and a little girl’s belief that fairies lived in the ravine, and visited daily with her grandmother before it became a park.
Small grants and volunteer labor transformed the land to include a stone amphitheater for children to sit in for lessons amid nature. Damage from winter weather and a sewer drain problem led to the idea for fundraising.
Those participating in the house-building program are advised to use natural materials from their own yards. Volunteers have been gathering moss, tree bark, stones and sticks.
Tonight’s event at Dundee Farm Barn, 528 Scaife Road, Sewickley Heights, costs $30. Tickets are available at the door and include desserts, wine and music.
The Saturday program is free. The lecture is in Osborne Elementary School, 1414 Beaver St., Sewickley. The fairy house building will be from 1:30 to 4 p.m. in the park.
Info: http:// www.qvsd.org/