Schenectady, NY.  Presented by the Story Circle of the Capital District at Whisperdome, (1221 Wendell Ave.) on Nov 13, 2005 from 4:00-6:00 p.m.
	What a wonderful Tellabration!!!  We heard many comments that "it was the best Tellabration ever!"  And you know, we think so too!  A "10" out of many 9.5's! And so many Story Circle members did their very generous best. All the 20 volunteers, plus the 11 tellers, all jumped in to do the behind scenes work at Tellabration, for jobs they knew they were going to do, and for jobs they saw needed doing. Thank you all. Audience members told us, "The refreshments were wonderful!  Where did they all come from?"  Story Circle members, of course, either themselves, or from donations they procured.  And the intermission worked too with the level of conversation and laughter high, showing that Tellabration generates easy fellowship. Tellabration is clearly a team effort, and we had a great team! And all the months of planning and hard work paid off -- we had 240 people at Tellabration this year, 80 people more than last year!  We all helped bring story, in such splendid fashion, to life in our region. Bravo! Much good cheer, Kate Dudding and Joe Doolittle, Co-producers
Sonora, California.  Presented by the Mother Lode Reading Council & Tuolumne County Library Tuolumne County Library at 7:00 -8:30pm.

The 6th Annual Tellabration! for Sonora, CA was last night (11/16). 30 people came to enjoy tales.  The event was co-sponsored by the Tuolumne County Library and the Mother Lode Reading Council.  "The Story Quilters" served as emcees.  We told one of our signature tandem stories "Would You Look at That?"--a cumulative story set in Yosemite National Park. Cynthia told a sweet personal story of her summer's with Grandma, called "Blackberry Love." B.Z. told a Sufi tale.  Also appearing was Mark Dyken, a musician who has come to storytelling.  He brought his beautiful big drum--"Grandmother" is her name. He told a fun tale of sharing gratitude for nature's gifts.  In addition to these professional tellers, 6 people participated in a story swap. From a 6 year-old telling Jack and the Beanstalk to an 88 year old reciting favorite poems.  We finished the night by passing out story prompts and inviting folks to pick a partner & swap tales in pairs and small groups. It was a dynamic night where everyone felt connected through stories.  We look forward to next year!  Look forward to hearing about others!  B.Z. Smith of the Story Quilters.
Alachua County, Florida.  Presented by Gainesville Story Group and Alachua County Library Districts on Nov 19, from 10:00-5:00 at various libraries (High Springs Branch, Millhopper Branch, Headquarters, Tower Road Branch, Hawthourne Branch, Alachua Branch)
	This was our first Tellabration. We decided to have a day-long event starting at our High Springs Branch Library at 10:00 o’clock and finishing at 9:00 o’clock with scary stories at the Alachua Branch Library.  Throughout the day we had storytellers at six different locations.  Over thirty tellers participated, including tellers from the library staff and the Storytelling Group (Ann Scroggie, Nancy Case and Roz Miller.) Tellers from the community also joined in: media specialists, teachers, youthful tellers, and teens from the Board of Library Teens. One teller, Jeremy Evans, is The 2004 Grand Torchbearer for The National Youth Storytelling Olympics. With so many talented tellers, we had a wide variety of stories that were enjoyed by all ages. We have had requests to make this an annual event and we are definitely looking into it! Mary Ooton
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  Presented by the Smoky Mountain Storytellers on Nov 19, at 7:00 p.m. at the Pigeon Forge Community Center.  For Families.
Our Pigeon Forge Tellabration! last night (November 19) was definitely a success. Audience numbered 120-150 with a couple of reporters in attendance, and one took some pictures.. Unfortunately, none of our group had a camera.   Jeanette Stevens was emcee.  Six tellers were Cuz Headrick, Janice Brooks-Headrick, Kathleen Mavournin, Mary Peterson, Lovella Richardson, and Millie Sieber.  The meeting was well advertised by Pigeon Forge Special events with rack cards in public places, notes in utility bills, a couple of Sevier County newspapers, and a lighted sign in the median of Pigeon Forge's parkway.    Pigeon Forge loves tourists.  Butch Helton there did the advertising, furnished refreshments and many door prizes, and provided a wonderful new community building with good sound system.   Lovella Richardson, Producer
McHenry, Maryland.  Presented by the Garrett Branch, AAUW & Mountain Storytellers of Maryland and West Virginia on Nov 19, at 7:00 p.m. at the Canoe on the Run Cafe.

We had our Tellabration! this Sat. evening.  It was the best I've ever produced.  We had many wonderful stories by storytellers from West Virginia and Maryland.  We even had time for some adult first timers to tell.  Two students of mine from my storytelling residency told also in tandem!  It was held at Canoe on the Run Cafe, a restaurant with healthy food, good cheer, and a fireplace in McHenry, Maryland on Deep Creek Drive.  Over 30 people enjoyed the stories; most had dinner ahead of time.  Some memorable moments were: Our Guest of Honor, Rich Knoblich (previously won the WV Liar's Contest) came all the way from Wheeling, WV and did a fantastic job; Katie Ross telling a story of thanks; Josh Gambetta telling about how the digerido came to be; Cara Brack and Mandy Sweitzer from 5th grade telling "Goin' Fishing"; John Grant telling a true story from the history of Garrett County; Ginny Grove telling about her doctor's "Conservatory;" Otto Ross opened the evening with classical guitar music .

Gail Herman

I teach Storytelling at Hanford High School, and we held our Tellabration on Sat. Nov. 19th at 1 PM.  We held a birthday party for Hans Christian Andersen and invited elementary school children from all over the area (we tell stories at afterschool programs every Wed. afternoon).  My students told classic Andersen tales, plus 2005 re-writes (most were quite humerous).  I had 19 students participate in the telling.  Our audience was small - only 54 - but a good time was had by all.  I had students who led the children in activities between stories (Hokey Poky, Wheels on the Bus, etc.)  Even the adults present did the activities, with huge smiles on their faces.  At the end there was free ice cream for all, to celebrate Hans' birthday. 

Nancy Fraleigh
Professional Storyteller, Author & Teacher

Olds, Alberta. Presented by TALES Calgary on November 18th at 7:30 in Coburn Hall.

The event will benefits the Canadian Red Cross who provide worldwide emergency assistance for victims of hurricane, flood and earthquake.

50 people attended the Benefit Concert.  $450.00 was raised to support the Canadian Red Cross.  Seven storytellers and three musicians delighted the audience with stories and music.  As we enjoyed the evening of stories from around the world, the images and the healing power of stories went out to people in Southeast Asia, New Orleans and Pakistan.

TALES Calgary, The Alberta League Encouraging Storytelling was pleased to sponsor this benefit concert for the Canadian Red Cross.  The funds raised will go to ongoing disaster relief for victims of flood, hurricane and earthquake. 

The Red Cross :

• Prepares 500,00 hot meals a day to serve survivors
• Assists 3.5 million hurricane survivors
• Operates more that 1100 shelters
• Mobilizes a volunteer workforce of 150,000 including 87 highly trained Canadian disaster relief workers
• Helps to reunite families  

Special thanks to the folks who provided sweet treats and organized the snacks.

Thank you to Bob Hays for the technical help and to Tamara for helping out with tickets sales.  A big thank you to all the storytellers who volunteered their time to make the Benefit Concert possible.

Mary Hays, producer

Arden (north Wilmington area), Delaware. 

Presented by the Wilmington Storytellers on Nov 18, at 7:30pm at the Buzz Ware Village Center. 

Wilmington Storytellers held its first Tellabration last night (Friday, Nov. 18), and we had a great time! Seven of our members told stories, plus three guest tellers. We filled our space, with an audience of 60 or so -- just the right size to feel like an "event" and still keep it intimate -- no speaker system, no amps, just us and the audience. The tellers brought a real variety of stories, from a creation myth to a present-day fable with a personal feel, and everything in between. Wilmington Storytellers was formed in 1951; one of our current members joined in 1952. We get together once a month in each other's homes. It was the first time we had performed as a group for an audience. While that was a great experience, the enjoyment and appeciation of each other that we gained was equally special.
In terms of logistics, the Buzz Ware Village Center of Arden, Delaware, let us use a very nice space for free. The tiny Arden library gave us publicity support. We took in $107.35 in donations, $90 will go to the BWVC, the remainder to buy a new book (of stories, of course) for the Arden library.

Cecilia Vore
member, Wilmington Storytellers
Wilmington, Delaware

I belong to a small storytelling guild in Grand Prairie, Texas.  If we have ten people in our meetings, we are thrilled, usually it's closer to five. 

Anyway, a couple of years ago we were  approached by the local Arts Council to send a representative to their monthly meetings.  We joined their meetings and have contributed our storytelling talents to several of their events over the past three years.  Last year we wrote a grant purposal to do a one day conference for teachers, ministers, and storytellers.  It was accepted, we brought in a well-known Texas storytelling trainer, at no little fee.  

The weather was bad, the attendance was low, and we were disappointed in having spent so much money for so little response.  The conference teacher was excellent and those who came said so, but still we wondered about the amount of time spent in publicity and cost of preparing for empty seats.  I guess every guild has experienced this, but it was our first.  

This year, when our guild talked of writing another proposal, we thought long and hard about the best way to fulfill the mission/heart of our guild, which is to share stories.  We finally decided that schools were our best audiences.  We also knew that many local schools had not employed storytellers, though they'd love to, because of lack of funds.  We decided to kill two birds with one stone.  We made a proposal to the Arts Council to tell stories in as many schools as we could schedule during the week before Tellabration.  The Council agreed that it would be a good way to spend their funds. 

  As president of the guild, I was the person who called up the library director of the school district and proposed our gift.  She was enthusiastic, and wanted us to go to specific schools, particularly the ones that had the least opportunity for storytellers to be hired. She sent me the names of librarians in local elementary schools and I collaborated with those librarians and our five tellers' schedules. 

I asked the tellers to report their experiences after their performances.  Every single teller had glowing remarks, was well received, and had large audiences.  Collectively, we told stories in nine schools, to nearly 3,000 children last week.  Though most of us also contributed to Tellabration! concerts in other local guilds on Saturday (Dallas and Fort Worth), we were delighted to share the joy of getting to tell stories, actually get paid to do so, and bring Tellabration! to the children of Grand Prairie.   

Tellabration is alive and well in north Texas!!

Luv and Stories, Mel Davenport

Grand Prairie Storytellers and Listeners

2nd annual "Virtual Tellabartion!" stortyelling festival via teleconference

Saturday the 19th and Sunday the 20th at 4:00 PM EST each day.

The "Virtual" Tellabration! 2005 via teleconference went well, although with small numbers each time. We had seven people present, including two storytellers, on Satuday, November 19, 2005, and six present (again including the same two stortyellers) present on Sunday, November 20, 2005. The Sunday performance had one person not present on Saturday, for a total of eight different people on both calls. Callers were from Arkansas, Tennesse, Alabama, New York and California (five states). Both traditional and original stories were told. Jane Carroll mostly told stories from her book, Bertha-Size Your Life, with one traditional story onSunday. Don Morris told mostly traditional stories, including Stone Soup, the Wide-mouthed Frog (a Cajun version), The Clock-maker nd the Bell-ringer, and a couple of originhal stories. There was lots of laughter and some serious, touching moments both days. I hope to conduct more virtual storytelling conferences in the future.

Warmly,

Don Morris

Los Altos, California.  Presented by the Southbay Storytellers & Listeners on Nov 19,

at 7 p.m. at the United Methodist Church. 

Southbay Storytellers and Listeners held its 14th annual Tellabration!™ last Saturday evening in Los Altos California. We had a lovely evening of storytelling for over 120 people. Our good member, Kristin Link, MCed like a pro.

Jean Ellisen opened with a charming reminiscence about teeth. The scene with her brushing her horse's teeth--I could just see it!

Pauline Young told a Chinese folktale with the unique situation. The hero had six questions to ask of the magical being but was only allowed to ask three. Choosing to ask questions for others ended up answering his own as well.--A very satisfying tale.

Willy Claflin told how his father read him"Elephant's Child" which helped with the wolf under Willy's bed. Maynard Moose made an appearance as moose poet, reciting a tale of romance in moose doggerel supposed to make him more attractive to lady mooses. When Willy tried to close the first half with a song, Maynard was called back for an encore, a Mother Moose tale.

Brian Conroy began the second half with a little jive piece 'Signifying Monkey" with the audience snapping fingers to keep the beat. He then recounted how, as an 11 year old altar boy, he snoozed through the Christmas Eve sermon in full view of the congregation. Then from his "Vegan Monologues," he told how Coyote changed the world by eating meat.

Wendolyn Bird gave us a full details version of Humpty Dumpty in which he DOES get put back together again. Brian came back up and they did a jazzy duet.

Tom and Sandy Farley shared a story, "Voices," by Eric Sabelman about what calls people to action. They closed the evening with "Night and the Candlemaker" by Wolfgang Somary, a parable in which pessimism fails and there IS a tomorrow, --a hopeful ending note.

It was all good! However with a smaller audience than a few years ago, we need to think about how to build attendance.

Sandy Farley

Setting: lovely evening in Tucson at a Moorish architectural style church, beautiful in itself, but gorgeous with our additions of little blue lights and quaint lanterns.

Program: 8 tellers with a variety of styles and stories

Audience: 55 adults and two intent upper elementary children. Feel good socialization and connecting, accompanied by cookies, coffee, and clementines.

Decision: to repeat it next year

Donations: $157 - we broke even!

Mary Wilson (and Jean Baxter) Tellers of Tales

Our group, the El Dorado Storytelling Guild, centered in Placerville, California, produced two Tellabration Events this year. 

The first, a Children's Concert, was presented at 2:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, November 19th, at the Cameron Park Branch of the El Dorado County Library.  Tellers were, Jim Upshaw (MC), Ellen Yevdakimov, Martha De Aquino, Penny Forpahl, Brenda Miller, and Leslie Rose.  With singing and chanting as well as storytelling it was a rollicking good time.

The second, a Family Concert, was presented the evening of the 19th at 7:00 in the main branch of the El Dorado County Library in Placerville.  Tellers were Jim Upshaw (MC), Penny Forpahl, Martha De Aquino, Dick Gasvoda, Leslie Rose and Brenda Miller.

At left:

(Top Left) Teller Brenda Miller tells a Cajun tale about Miz Gator

(Top Right) Teller Ellen Yevdakimov tells why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears.

(Bottom Left) Teller/MC Jim Upshaw introduces the next teller.

(Bottom Right) Teller Martha De Aquino tells a Japanese tale

I am Ron Fowler from Petoskey Michigan (We’re a little southwest –Little Traverse Bay from the “tip of the mitten”)

 We held out Tellebration on Saturday Night.  I still emphasize the Night of Storytelling for Grown-ups.  We had 30 (including teller’s guests) folks show up.  It was our 11th.  The event was co-sponsored by the Blissfest Music Association and the Petoskey Public Library.  It was held in our Old Carnegie Library Building. 

Navajo Nation Tellabration!

Our community had its first Tellabration on Friday evening, Nov. 18, at the Diné College Library in Tsaile, Arizona.  We are a very small, isolated rural community perched at the northeastern tip of Canyon de Chelly in the Navajo Nation.  It's more of an outpost than a town, really, containing only one gas station, an elementary school, a large Indian Health Service facility, and the main campus of Diné College, the Navajo tribal college.  The nearest grocery store and other facilities are 30 miles away in Chinle. 
We recently started an occasional Friday night coffeehouse series, Friday Nights @ The Library, in an effort to create a social and creative space for our community.  Our Tellabration event was the second in the new series, sponsored by the library and the literary club at the Tsaile campus, and it drew a crowd of 30-40 people.  Everyone is still talking about it!  We had a sumptuous potluck supper, followed by music and storytelling (picture Northern Exposure set in Tsaile, Arizona, with much less snow than in Cicely, Alaska!).

Our Chinese math professor had the mostly Navajo audience in stitches when he launched into a traditional introduction, naming his clans: Falling Apple Clan and One-Two-Three Clan!  Then he regaled us with Chinese folksongs and stories.  Our Ghanean economics professor had exchanged his customary impeccable suit and tie for dazzling traditional robes, and he embellished his delightful Turtle trickster tale with songs and dancing that made us all clap along.  I played a couple of brief flute airs and told a Scots selkie story, and the president of the literary club told stories of his small working class Vermont community. 

One of the IHS doctors told a hilarious personal story as an introduction to "The Hedley Kow" and then sat down, declaring that he had taken up enough time and we would have to hear his story another time!  We also had strong musical sets by two local singer-songwriters, who shared the stories behind their songs.  We were supposed to have had traditional Navajo winter tales told by one the the Diné Studies faculty, who is also president of the Diné Medicine Men's Association, but he was called out of town unexpectedly for a ceremony.

The best part of the evening for me was when several students told me afterwards that they were going to bring stories to tell and poetry to read at our next event!  I think storytelling is going to become a standard feature of our coffeehouse evenings.

Victoria Beatty
Instruction/Distance Services Librarian
Diné College
Tsaile, Arizona

FREE

Family storytelling event!

The International Day of Storytelling!

ALFORD BRANCH LIBRARY

3447 South Meridian

Wichita, KS

(316) 337-9119

Saturday, November 19, 2005

1:00-3:00 p.m.   

Wichita's held an afternoon Tellabration! to draw families, but ended up with mostly adults in the audience. 

We had six storytellers representing three storytelling groups in town.  They told to twenty audience members, four of whom had never heard a storyteller before! 

We consider it a great success, even with the small attendance.  We had to change venues this year, and it always takes time to build audiences back up.  A good time was had by all!   

Judy Nichols

We had a spectacular program at the Oceanfront Area Library in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  We incorporated our Tellabration! into our National Children’s Book Week programming, and our 4 tellers shared stories for adults as well as young children.  Our fabulous tellers used props, musical instruments, simple costumes for child participants, and more. Here’s who told stories this year, at our 2nd annual Tellabration:

Track McCreary, musical folklorist and storyteller;  Connie Ralston-Roberts, also known far and wide as the “Drum Lady”; Norris Spencer, founder of the Tidewater Storytellers Guild and a tremendous teller; and Dianna McDowell, a children’s storyteller/performer who weaves creative dramatics, props and audience participation into her work.

They all live in the Virginia Beach area and are tremendous resources.  If anyone is interested in contacting them, I would be happy to help facilitate that. 

Attached are some wonderful pictures. 1: Norris with Track in the background;2: Dianna  3.Connie w/ drum; 

4. Track, Connie and some of the audience.  

We are so proud to be sponsoring Tellabration in our area!!!!

Thanks -  Cynthia Cordes, Youth Librarian, Oceanfront Area Library

Good evening!   I am writing to you at the request of Don Doyle of Mesa, AZ and Pine, AZ, with whom you may be acquainted. I am the publicity chairman for Tellabration! in Pine, AZ, and Don asked that I contact you with the story of our 2005 Tellabration that took place on November 19th.

While preparing for Tellabration 2004, I had the idea that we should incorporate dinner with Tellabration, and bring the tiny community of Pine its first ever "dinner theatre." While a number of people I talked with during the months that followed were incredulous that it would fly, I felt that culture is culture, and anyone who attended Tellabration and could afford to attend "dinner before theatre", would probably do so.

And so plans were made, and with the help of wonderful volunteers from Payson, Pine and Strawberry, AZ, we had what could only be considered the "smashing success event of the year."   Tickets for Tellabration in Pine have sold for $5 for the past seven years we have held the event. We sold the tickets for dinner and theatre for $20, which included dinner (at 5 p.m.) and Tellabration, which followed (at 7 p.m.). I put the dinner tickets on sale at our local library one month before the event, and they were sold out in 2 weeks (50 seats). We could probably have sold 50 more, had we had a larger dining facility. Tickets for Tellabration itself, normally only sold at the door, were also offered at the library. Children's programming at the Isabelle Hunt Memorial Public Library in Pine, a small rural library, received the profits from this year's concert.   More than 200 people attended Tellabration! 2005 in Pine, which is a community of only 300 people in the winter. It was our best  Tellabration ever, and Don asked that I write to you and share our story, perhaps for your storytelling magazine. Tellers this year were Don Doyle, Dorothy Anderson, Doug Bland, Susan Klein, Ricardo Provencio, Marilyn Torres, and Liz Warren.  

Thank you!  

Grace Schoerner Publicity Chairman, Pine (AZ) Tellabration

Students and assistant instructors have fun during a critique session at a youth storyteller workshop in the Fairhaven Library Wednesday. From left to right are: Hadley Frazier (back to camera), Hanako Lombardi, Lizzie Friesen (in stripes), Nell Heineman, Annie Vohs, Jacqueline Hawkins (with glasses) and Brendan Friesen. Three of the kids will perform at Tellabration, a storytelling event to be held Saturday at Western Washington University.

We had a wonderful Tellabration here in Bellingham complete with Donald Davis and a gaggle of youthful storytellers.

More to come...

Greetings from South Sound Storytelling Guild,   We had a great Tellabration! with over 50 people in attendance. (And they weren't all friends and relatives of the tellers -- even better!) No pictures, however, but I have attached the program we handed out.  

Who: Nine storytellers who are members of South Sound Storytelling Guild. Some of the tellers have been performing stories for many years, some for just a couple of years, and for one teller this was only her second public performance.   

What: Our show included a nice selection of stories from several genre -- folk tales, an original composition, funny and reflective personal stories, a ballad (story in song), and an historical story.   When: Saturday evening, November 19  

Where: We presented our show in a nice meeting space associated with the local historical museum. They have a very minimal charge for use of the space by non-profit groups. Guild members bring coffee makings and cookies for all to enjoy.  

Why: We asked for a suggested donation of $5 and will send all of our proceeds to the NSN hurricane relief fund. We collected close to $250.00.  

Comments: We usually advertise our Tellabration! as a concert for adults and "children who listen like adults", so we rarely have children in attendance unless they are from the tellers' families. This year there were two 8-year-old boys. One of the boys regularly attends my performances (we are church and family friends) but this time he asked to tell his own story, so after intermission he stood in front of the audience and told us a story about his new hamster! The other boy came with his grandmother and was a newcomer to our shows, so I asked him how he enjoyed it. I was trying to determine if the stories were of interest to an 8-year-old, and he helped me out, saying that the stories "weren't boring at all" and he liked the funny ones, especially the one about the flying squirrel. Most exciting for us was that many of the audience members were new to our events and not related to tellers. We got their names on a sign-in sheet so we can keep them apprised of future performances and other information.  

Well, that's our story in a nutshell.  

Smiles, Randi Moe

The Children's Museum Storytelling Guild of the Brazos Valley in Bryan, Texas had a very successful Tellabration! event on November 19 from 4:00 -6:00. This was a family event that was attended by about 50 people. Our program began with three adorable children who stole the hearts of the audience with their delightful stories. They were followed by our special guests, Tim Tingle, Doc Moore and Dalton Gregory. They kept the audience spell bound with inspirational stories as well as tall tales.

Nancy Self, President

Sacramento, California Tellabration!

A Tellabration was held for the first time at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento (UUSS) as part of the program of events sponsored by the Sacramento Storytellers Guild (SSG). Zack Taylor, a new member of the Sacramento guild, was the producer of the event and Marion Kile, past president of the SSG was the Mistress of Ceremonies. Zack put together a program of six tellers four of which are members of the UUSS known for their fine storytelling abilities. One teller, John Pellman is a professional actor, director, and playwright. Susan Osborn, who told a poignant story called The Carrot, an Egg and a Cup of Coffee, is a professional teller and conducts workshops on using storytelling as a leadership tool. A group of about 35 people enjoyed the evening of stories followed by cookies, apple cider, and conversation. A donation was made to UNICEF.

Best wishes, Zack Taylor

Northstar Storytelling League collaborated for the 4th year in a row with Open Book in Downtown Minneapolis on Nov 26th to do an all day storytelling festival which was very well recieved.  Between 250 - 400 came during the day and we had upwards of 150 for the evening concert, which featured nationally known tellers Kevin Kling, Michael Cotter and Nancy Donoval, along with Nothando Zulu and Host Richard Rousseau.

During the day we had workshops by Andre Heuer and Rose Arrowsmith, as well as storytelling for families and showcases of local goups.  All in all a terrific event! I will attach our program and send photos when I get them! 

Thanks! Vickijoan Keck

I'm glad to report this year's Tellabration at Tamarack 2005! event was a success! On the evening of Saturday, November 19, we presented a wonderful evening of storytelling for the public at Tamarack in Beckley, West Virginia. This Beckley program teamed the West Virginia Storytelling Guild (WVSG), the National Park Service (NPS), and the National Storytelling Network. This is the ninth Tellabration event produced at Tamarack by the WVSG, adding this year's partnership with the NPS.

Fifty-five people joined us for this fun, relaxed evening in Beckley, where we started with a Tellabration at Tamarack tradition - the Story Ball activity, then enjoyed Appalachian stories from our three featured storytellers, Lynn Mills, Doug Stanley, and Suzi Whaples. As usual, these wonderful tellers made us laugh, cry, and every thing in between. Thank you Lynn, Doug, and Suzi for donating your time and talents! Danny McMillion again helped produce this year's event,as she has with every Tellabration at Tamarack event.

The audience enjoyed the evening and seemed especially receptive to the new spin we put on the Beckley event. Since this year's Tellabration at Tamarack partnered the WVSG with the National Park Service, the national purpose of this event took on an added emphasis to the importance of heritage stories and their preservation. Thanks to the help of our featured tellers (Appalachian story focus), plus a little telling and parks emphasis by the MC, we successfully drove home our point --- that each of us can help preserve stories, as well as find tales of our nation's heritage/history every where, especially in National Park Service Sites (including the local New River Gorge National River). The audience even seemed receptive to their homework assignment: visit national parks and tell someone your assigned story (every person was given a card at the beginning of the program that asking a question like: tell a story about a party you attended, tell a story about a time you visited a national park, tell a story about a time you lived at or visited a farm, tell a story about favorite teacher, etc.). Each person was given a different card, so each person would have a different story to tell to another person after our event.

Through the help of many individuals and the partnership of these organizations, along with support from regional media, the 2005 Tellabration at Tamarack event was a great success! We already have a commitment by Tamarack for the NPS to host this Tellabration event next year on Saturday, November 18, 2006. We look forward to another fun event next year!

Jodi French-Burr
National Park Service
New River Gorge National River

Doug Stanley

Lynn Mills

Storyball activity

Suzi Whaples

Tellabration at the Union Avenue Christian Church was a fun and successful, with 70 listeners in attendance. Cathy Gregory MC¹d quite well with short, sweet introductions. Karen Young blew me away with the story of Llewelyn and Gellert the Hound, making it a story that anyone who ever loved a dog, or a boy, would feel deeply. Jeanne Crews told the story of the wishing ring that was never wished on, showing what we can do if we just try. Stephen Joseph Gregory, our youth teller, told a ³happily ever after² story, that ended with a happy Thanksgiving as a surprise. Joann King told the story of the deck of cards standing in for a Bible, and hoped that we ³never look at a deck of cards the same again.² Warren Wyman proved that he can tell short stories, with a masterfully recounted series of gems. The most impish Sharon Thompson told a story of Little Green Men and the surprising answer to the question, ³What do you want?² May all your wishes come true . . . or perhaps ³may the deepest desires of your hearts be satisfied.²

Love and peace (+sunscreen & big hats),
Mary Garrett