The Good Fairy Story

Sleepy Hollow mom Penny Macphail launched Good Fairy as a group on Nextdoor on March 13th, 2020. Marin was in the throws of the first COVID-19 shelter in place recommendations. Almost overnight, many seniors and vulnerable individuals were stranded without access to groceries and errands. Many just didn't have friends or family nearby that could go to stores for them. Even those who could shop online found orders that previously took two hours to arrive were now taking two weeks. And then.. those orders were often delivered incomplete as certain items such as toilet paper became scarce.

The Good Fairy community provided a platform for people to volunteer their services to neighbors. Crucially - due to Nextdoor tagging members with their location - partnerships were made intelligently between folks who were actual neighbors, handy enough for volunteering to become regular and sustainable. We also strived to really enable people to feel good about asking for help and clarifying not just exactly what they need, but also what would brighten their day. We were clear this might be emotional as well as practical support, fun things like jigsaws and yeast to make bread, weird things like rehoming a howling cat and personal things like replacing a beloved lost book or tracing a relative. We were careful to use sensitive language, to ensure those over 65 yrs of age were not labelled ' elderly', and that seniors in good healthy were being community spirited not lazy or selfish in respecting the SIP advice simply based on age.

And - crucially - all was placed within a framework of safety and hygiene standards to protect everyone. Affectionately know as ' Operation Axe Murderer', we outlined shopping/errand procedures that maximized social interaction but minimized physical contact. Penny wanted to be sure no one was pushed into a house and no one was dragged into a house.

As volunteers and requests for help poured in, and truly beautiful stories of fairy deeds poured out, the original fairlyland team members Lisa, Jeff, Kif and Sarah and threw themselves into the project and worked their wings off to expand Good Fairy to be a website and make it what it is today - Jeff becoming our webmaster! We decided together Good Fairy would be caring, creative, friendly and always free. We now have over 1,000 members on Nextdoor and several hundred registered on this website, and following on Facebook and Instagram.

Partnering individuals is still our core work. We strive to understand and connect people to existing county resources first, then support as needed. Hence our carefully compiled helpful links and close relationship with many county organizations. And beyond shopping, errands, IT support etc we specialize in really listening to folks and applying some creativity to bring them moments of customized comfort, often offering things they never thought to request such as home cooked food, someone to chat to in a language they used to speak, taking and framing a photograph of a beloved pet etc. Some of these become mini projects involving a team of fairies and can be seen on Fairy Tales page .

We also engage in community projects. Sometimes these ideas are sparked by our doing something for one person and thinking ...huh ..lots of folks might enjoy that. With these we like to mix generation, those SIP and those mobile, people from different town and folks of varying affluence. Often they are a way for those being helped in our fairy partnerships to give back in some way. These have included Friday Fairy Feasts surprising folks with dinner from Fairfax Lodge, A graduation ceremony for Bayside MLK, Jr. in Marin City ( for which we borrowed 27 convertible cars) , the gardening program where seniors grew tomato and strawberry seedlings and high school fairies distributed hundreds of them to SIP folks, our mask making team ( which has made over 2,000 masks), The Lucky Bakers Club (which bought hard to find yeast in bulk and distributed it first to bakers and then to non bakers, challenging them to make their own bread) Project Love Bug bringing 4,000 appreciation stones to Marin's grocery frontliners, the letter writing team, and ' it's Cold Out There' - a series of initiatives to help those who are homeless.

Love Bugs - stones painted to look like ladybugs - continue to be a trademark for Good Fairy and are given to individuals and organizations as an expression of community love and respect. Real ladybugs cluster together to combine the slight odor that each emits to create a smell strong enough to ward of predators. And as such are a great example of communities pulling together, powered by individuals participating as best they can.

Where did the name come from?

The name Good Fairy was inspired by Penny's bestest ever and forever friend Georgia's dad, Norman. As they were growing up together in Northern Ireland, Penny loved stories of how Norman would place a fairy on Georgia's shoulder when she was facing something daunting. His fun and loving spirit is still on Georgia's shoulder now, and very much at the heart of Good Fairy. With love and sorrow for your pain in losing him, to Georgia, Corin, Emma, and Jason.

Always free of charge.

If you need to contact us or know somebody who needs to contact us and is not on the internet , please email us or text us at (415) 488-6594‬. For the fastest response, please use our online forms.

Marin community resource guide by town