Karen with The Ren-Fairies who danced and entertained the girls all day!  Also pictured is Tristen Bookmyer who was The Fairy Poster Child for 2006!     

Cricket the Renfaerie spoke the same language as the butterflies.  She gave each one a faerie kiss before the butterfly release.

Karen with Candace Cameron Bure and Ashlie Brillault.

Photographing the Fairies in the Butterfly Garden was incredible!  Here are a few of Karen's portraits:

Read the coverage of this wonderful event on Operation Smile's website   

UPDATE:  September 2006 - Special Events Magazine

Karen is proud to announce that an article about The Fairy Garden Gala made the featured cover story in the September 2006 edition of Special Events magazine, an international publication for special event professionals. 

Kid Stuff - Festive Fundraisers for children's charities - page 1

Kid Stuff - Festive Fundraisers for children's charities - page 2

The following is a transcript of the above article:

FUNDRAISING WHEN THE KIDS ARE COUNTING ON YOU

BY NATASHA GARBER                                                                Sep 1, 2006 12:00 PM

SMALL staffs, big goals, enterprising event concepts. These are the qualities that unite three modest but memorable fundraisers — each benefiting young people in physical, emotional or financial crisis — profiled in this month's cover story.
FAIRY GOOD DEED

A Fine-art children's photographer by trade, Plantation, Fla.-based Karen Paige Hillman found herself in the role of event planner when she decided it was time to "give something back."

Hillman says she wanted not just to help a needy organization but to do so in a way that related to her profession. She adds, "Nothing goes along with what I do more than a child's smile." Hence her selection of Norfolk, Va.-based Operation Smile as beneficiary of proceeds from her "Fairy Garden Gala" — an April luncheon on the grounds of her Florida home where little girls got the chance to play fairy for one magical afternoon.

Inspired by folklore's depiction of fairies as "tiny beings, in human form, who will come to the aid of others," Hillman says she conceptualized the gala as both a day of play for the children in attendance and serious silent-auction action for their parents.

In preparation for the event, the photographer solicited local vendors for everything from the event's tents — used to separate the garden into spaces for fairy face-painting, fairy jewelry-box-making and lunch — to gift bags to print ads trumpeting the first-time-ever event. Enlisting the aid of a well-connected friend who "is great at asking people for things," Hillman also scored such in-demand auction items as a four-night stay at Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas, an exclusive mother-daughter shopping spree and a Florida Panthers-autographed hockey stick.

According to Hillman, asking for in-kind rather than cash sponsorship was key to the event's success: "I think if I had said, 'Will you be my title sponsor? I need $10,000,' it would have been a lot more difficult. But when you're going to someone and saying, 'Will you help? I'm not asking for money,' then they say, 'Whatever I can do that is part of my services, I'll do.'"

That kind of savvy strategizing helped the novice event planner create a $150-per-guest event that didn't just bring smiles to the faces of the young girls — who enjoyed chicken fingers, fairy dress-up and a butterfly release — but also raised $22,000. That sum is enough for 90 of the life-changing cleft-lip and cleft-palate surgeries that Operation Smile funds internationally.

So inspired was Hillman by her Fairy Garden Gala experience that the photographer — who has never traveled outside of the United States — will journey to Peru with Operation Smile next year to witness the funds she raised being put to work. She already is planning a 2007 all-boys version of the event, which she calls "a safari-themed event beyond imagination."