Seated in her office with signs on
the door reading, "Warning: I have flying monkeys and I'm not afraid to
use them!" and "What happens over the rainbow stays over the rainbow,"
C.J. Hirschfield, executive director of Children's Fairyland, beamed as she looked
out the window last week and watched toddlers cavorting on the park's newest
attraction, Jack & Jill Hill, a six-foot, gently sloped mound covered with high
quality AstroTurf.
Some kids slid down the hill on squares
of recycled cardboard and ran giggling into their parents' arms. Others raced
back up the hill to do it all over again. Three little boys rolled down the
hill. And one daring little girl slid down headfirst. All were having the time
of their lives.
"There hasn't been a single
moment since Jack & Jill Hill opened (on July 27) that it hasn't been in
constant use," said Hirschfield, who cheerfully admits she stole the idea
from the Santa Barbara Zoo.
"I was visiting there two
years ago with my daughter, and I saw kids playing on an AstroTurf-covered
mound called The Ant Hill, and I thought, 'Oh boy! It's simple and physical and
low-tech and interactive! It would be perfect for Fairyland!'"
As usual, the main obstacle for
Fairyland, which perpetually runs on a shoestring budget, was finding the money
to pay for it.
"But that was no problem for
C.J.," said Ron Zeno, a member of Fairyland's Board of Directors. "She
knows everyone in town."
In this case, it was Councilwoman
Jane Brunner, who came up with a grant to buy the AstroTurf, and Mike Hester,
president of McGuire & Hester, who donated the labor.
"Oakland and Fairyland have
been an important part of my life, both personally and professionally, so it
seemed like the natural thing to do," said Hester, who spent many happy
hours at Fairyland as a child.
Hirschfield is celebrating her 10th
anniversary as Fairyland's executive director, having assumed the reins in 2002
after an extremely successful 25-year career in the cable television industry. But
she had to take a huge salary cut to make the move.
"I happened to be in New York
on 9/11, and it had a profound effect on me," she explained. "I
thought about the people who died, and I said, "I hope they were doing
what they loved.' And then it hit me: I'm not doing what I love!
"So when I got back to the Bay
Area I saw a job listing on Craigslist for Fairyland's executive director, and
I thought, 'What greater challenge could there be than to go to work every day at
a place I've loved since my daughter was a kid and make it better for the next
generation?'"
But she had her work cut out for
her.
"Things weren't going very
well here," said Zeno. "In a word, they were bad. But she came in
here and went right to work."
The first thing order of business
was repairing the Pirate Ship, which had been blocked off with yellow police
tape for years due to safety concerns.
"I happened to be talking to
then-state Senator Don Perata, whom I'd known from my previous life in the
cable industry," said Hirschfield. "And he said, 'I love Fairyland.
Let me know if there's anything I can to do to help,' and I said, 'Well, since
you asked, we need a sizable sum of money to install safety features on the
Pirate Ship.'
"The next day he called me and
said, 'I think I may have someone who wants to help you.' It was Diane and Ed DaSilva,
whose son Doug had recently passed away. Doug had loved playing on the Pirate Ship
when he was a little boy, so they donated the funds to fix it up in his
memory."
Next up: building the long-delayed Old
West Junction.
"I saw a sign saying, 'Old
West Junction coming soon,' and, being new on the job, I said,
'Wonderful!' The staff started cracking up, and someone said 'C.J., that sign
has been there for 20 years!'"
Next came the transformation of the Thumbelina Tunnel, which had been boarded up and unused for more than
two decades, into the Fairy Music Farm, featuring one-of-a-kind interactive musical instruments that
kids make sounds on as they go through the tunnel.
Then came restoration of the Puppet
Theater and the Chapel of Peace, followed by construction the Little Red Hen House
for Fairyland's newest residents, three "heirloom" chickens named
Woodstock, Violet and Polyanna.
But Hirschfield's pride and joy,
which she labored seven long years
to bring about, is Aesop's Playhouse, the region's only children's performing
arts theater, a popular venue for groups like the Oakland-East Bay Symphony's
Music in the Schools Program as well as home base for Fairyland's own
children's theater program.
She's the first to admit she
couldn't have done any of this without her loyal staff who, like her, are
working for a fraction of what they could be earning elsewhere.
"She doesn't
micro-manage," said Zeno. "When she first came here, her attitude toward
the staff was 'You know what you're doing, so go do it. I'm going to do what I
need to do as executive director to make this park improve.' And that's what
she did."
Hirschfield's goal is to remain faithful
to the original vision of Fairyland's founders, horticulturalist Arthur Navlet
and William Penn Mott, director of the East Bay Regional Parks district, whose
motto was "no straight lines and a surprise around every corner."
"They had a very clear concept
of what they wanted the park to be, and we're trying hard to channel that
intent. We think they'd approve of what we're doing to make Fairyland a sweet,
safe place for families."
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