NSN's Heroes
9/27/08 -- The Heroes Campaign was kicked off by RhythmSoled, an Arizona-based duo comprised of 20-year-old tap-dancing storyteller Dustin Loehr and 20-year-old story lover and avid performer Kim Sheperd. In their own words, “We got to spearhead the movement by holding the first ever Story Potluck in our valley. On Saturday, September 27th, thirty people arrived at Community Christian Church in Tempe. Doug Bland, a storyteller and the church’s pastor, kindly donated space for the potluck. Local Arizona businesses donated food and free prizes for a raffle at the event. Storytellers Sandy Oglesby, the newly elected Western Region Representative for NSN, and NSN's Arizona State Liaison LynnAnn Wojciechowicz performed alongside Dustin. The potluck, an hour of food with an hour of stories, was a great success, raising $357.
10/2/08 - Bobby Norfolk, Barbara Freeman, Gayle Ross, David Novak, Diane Ferlatte, Faye Wooden, and Rixon Lane donated their performances at National Story Night in Jonesborough, TN, and raised more than $2300 for the Member Grants Program!
10/9/08 – Members and new storytellers in southern Nevada hosted a “Night of Appreciation” at the West Charleston Library, organized by Kristy Price, Marsh Cutler-Thiele, and Karla Huntsman. Tellers from the area shared stories still in development with friends, family, and storytelling patrons at large. Donations raised $200 – and priceless awareness!
11/21/08 – The Detroit Story League, Associate Member, sponsored a Tellabration at the Livonia Public Library in Livonia, Michigan. $200 was raised for the NSN Heroes Campaign. Member tellers were: Marilyn Flam, Sharon Schmidt, Justina Fazzolari, Larry Johnson, and Judy Sima. Nearly 100 members of the Detroit Story League, friends and the public attended the event.
11/22/08 - Tellabration sponsored by the Palm Beach County Storytelling Guild, hosted by Mij Byram, took place at the Willow Theater at Sugar Sand Park in Boca Raton, Florida. Tellers were guild members Adele Alexandre, Roslyn Bresnick-Perry, Mij Byram, Caren Neile and Linda Spitzer. A crowd of more than 100 people raised $159 for NSN Heroes Campaign.
11/29/08 - VOX: The Storytelling Slam celebrated its third anniversary with prizes, surprises, and a collection for the National Storytelling Network Heroes Campaign. For a three-year-old event that has never requested a dime from its participants, Caren Neile’s VOX, sponsored by the South Florida Storytelling Project at Florida Atlantic University, raked in a respectable $91. More than 50 storytellers and story listeners celebrated the storytelling slam’s third anniversary at Gizzi’s Coffee Gallery in Delray Beach, Florida, with raffle prizes, crayons for self-expression on the papered tables, a roaring fire (hey, it was only in the 70s!), lots of laughs and more than a few tears. After listening to stories ranging from a schoolboy’s attempts to melt ice with gasoline to a Holocaust survivor’s experience of the German invasion of Austria, guests were delighted to contribute to the cause of storytelling nationwide.
1/24/09 - “Listening and Telling: The Art of Gathering and Performing Oral History,” a workshop by Jo Radner in Cambridge, MA. Jo showed how to use skills as a storyteller to conduct powerful interviews that generate stories – how to listen deeply to emerging memories, how to be silent when silence is needed, and how to ask effective questions at the right moment. The workshop generated $545 for the NSN Heroes Campaign.
1/31/09: VOX: The Storytelling Slam took up a collection for the Heroes Campaign. At VOX, the first 10 people to sign up tell a 3-5 minute personal story in a friendly competition, and everyone else just sits back and enjoys. Caren Neile produces VOX nine months a year at Gizzi's Coffee Gourmet, 2275 Federal Highway, Boca Raton, Florida, 8-9:30 p.m. For more information, contact Caren at cneile@fau.edu or 561-297-0042.
2/13/09: Cathryn Fairlee and Yvonne Healy hosted an Irish Valentine evening house concert and raised $220 for NSN in Petaluma, Ca! They performed the Lugh story to a full house enjoying stories, cookies, chocolate hearts, Yvonne’s delicious Irish soda bread, and even one guest’s Irish whiskey! The enthusiastic group was still not ready to leave after 90 minutes of telling, so Cathryn told an extra story and they took questions. Along with raising money for NSN, the evening raised awareness of what a good story told to a good adult audience can be.
2/14/09: Central Texas Storytelling Guild held a Valentine’s Day Tea and Tales in Austin, Texas, and raised $250 for NSN Heroes. Donna Ingham chaired the event, and Bernadette Nason played host in her home.
3/26/09 - Ellizabeth Ellis’s workshop group at Florida Storytelling Camp played “The Money Game” and raised $105.40, which they decided to donate to NSN! Jane Crouse raised an additional $30 for NSN from a donation box at the workshop.
4/9/09 – Margaret Read MacDonald generously donated her $250 keynote fee back to NSN’s July Pacific Year of the Regions event, Talk Story Conference in Hawaii.
12/13/09 - A giant thank you to NSN supporters in Virginia for their generous $250 donation as a result of a 2009 Storytelling Heroes event. Norris Spencer shared that Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hale in Virginia Beach opened their home to a well-attended, beautiful evening of storytelling, talents donated by Lynn Ruehlmann and Megan Hicks. Thank you to all involved!
And we thank the first Heroes Campaign donors:
Marcia Donovan, Cookeville, Tennessee storyteller, has donated $170—her share of the sponsorships she raised this past summer to support NSN’s Gatlinburg conference. Marcia says, “This donation and my continued work on the Heroes Campaign only begins to pay NSN back for the 20 years of membership benefits I have received, indirectly through its support of the great storytellers I look up to, and directly through magazine articles that inspire and challenge.”
Williamsburg (VA) Weavers of the Word voted to donate $100 to the Heroes Campaign. Gillian Dawson writes, “although we feel we are not a big enough or well-organized group to have a fundraiser we voted to contribute $100 from our account.” Thank you!