Article by Marion Winick, featured in the October 2005 issue of Central PA Magazine:

For my daughter Jane’s fifth birthday, a fairy came to our house. An ethereal 
vision in gauzy wings, glittering crown and lavender tutu, Posie began by 
transforming the six partygoers into sprites themselves with wings and crowns she 
had brought for each one. She dusted jewels and sparkles on their faces, 
painted butterflies on their hands, then took them to a charmed circle she had 
decorated under the trees in our backyard where they were initated with the Fairy 
Pledge: 

I believe in fairies, I believe in me, 
I believe in magic, I love the way we be
Playing here together in perfect harmony
I believe in fairies, I believe in me.

As they sat rapt in the dappled light, she told the girls the story of how 
she became Posie. As a child herself, she found two fairies named Orchid and 
Buttercup stuck in a spider’s web in the woods. Unable to escape the arachnid 
without tumbling into the maw of a big fish in the creek below, Orchid and 
Buttercup rewarded the little girl who saved them by making her an honorary fairy 
for life, Posie.

I first heard Posie’s origin tale at an enchanted tea party at the Spoutwood 
Farm Fairie Festival several years ago, an event which 33-year-old Carlisle 
resident Dana Stout (Posie’s mortal identity) co-produces in conjunction with Rob 
Wood, the proprietor of the farm and the “Green Man” of the festival. This 
15-year-old event now attracts 10,000 visitors to rural Southern York County 
the first weekend in May, with dozens of magical entertainments, a sparkling 
array of merchants and food vendors, Maypole dances, musical performances, a 
fairy maze, craft activities, and a tour of an abandoned fairy habitat found in 
the woods nearby. Ask Stout why this event has become so popular and she will 
tell you without hesitation: “Because we need it. We need that beauty, that 
enchantment, that whimsy in our lives.”

Growing up an only child in rural Mercersburg, Stout played alone in the 
woods, whiling away the hours with fantasies of fairy, gnome and brownie 
playmates. Even after she graduated from high school and worked in retail and as nanny 
for many years, she never forgot those fairy dreams. And when she met Rob Wood 
and his elfin associates in 1999, particularly the fairy from New Jersey 
named Sweet Pea who is the author of the Fairy Pledge – she really did become 
Posie after all. 

Each of the little fairies at Jane’s party went home with their handmade 
wings, crown and unicorn-horn necklace, an autographed Polaroid of herself with 
Posie, a fairy manicure, a friendship ring she had made herself, and a bag full 
of treats and treasures. Even more charmingly, each retained the absolute 
certainty that she had spent the afternoon with a fairy. In the weeks that have 
passed, endless discussions of fairy lore and fairy games have ensued; Jane has 
been working on a book of drawings called “I Believe in Magic.” The other day 
when I sighed over my housework, she suggested I leave out some treats for 
the brownies, who will come and help you with your chores if you are kind to 
them!