Ingrid B. Leland was born and educated in Chile.   Ingrid speaks Spanish, German and some Portuguese. She spent the last 20 years of her career as a partner in a construction company.  She spends time as a docent at Museum of the West and Botanical Gardens.  She loves gardening and also volunteers for Hospice.   What brought Ingrid to Grand Junction was the Symphony.  Few towns our size have a full time symphony.  She is a member and active in the Symphony Guild.
 
Ingrid was a charter member of our chapter.  She met Jim Widdows at the Horizon Sunrise Rotary club and was recruited to help start our chapter. 
 
Her favorite types of stories are those with a moral.  She especially likes animal stories and foreign stories.  She tells for 3rd grade classrooms.
 
When asked if she has any wisdom to share with new storytellers, she stated that everyone has his or her very own and innate way of telling a story.  Most storytellers will emphasize that the storyteller must tell stories that they are comfortable with....and tell it in his or her own way. 
 
One of my favorite stories ends with:  "Any storyteller worth listening to will add his or her own curl to the story."  So these are wise words from one of our charter members!  Thank you, Ingrid, for sharing your stories!

 

 

When I have left something out of the story, I say, "Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you etc. etc...." and tell them what I left out.  When I forget what comes next, I try real hard to remember a story with similar situations and weave the new story into the one I forgot.  If that doesn't work I stop and yell, "That's the fire alarm!"....(no I don't!)  Ray Schuster  (editor's note: Ray has never, ever yelled that's the fire alarm, but it is included to stress the need to keep one's sense of humor at all times!  He does this quite well!)

 

Sylvia Bingham read a story that was written by her 12 year old grandson!  He won third place in a PBS competition and the story was published in GV magazine.  It was called "Stick Figures" and was read with love and great expressions by his proud Grandma! 

 

 

Mary Ann Janson told "Coyote Meets the Rock".  The version she shared is by Tim Tingle.  She had adapted the story to include some great audience participation!  Other versions of the story can be found at the following links:

 

 

 

 

I also have a book, Native American Stories, by Joseph Bruchac which contains the Pawnee version of the story which is titled "Old Man Coyote and the Rock."  The author gives some great suggestions for the use of the stories in the introduction in this book.  He says that: to know a people's stories also means knowing a people.  A good approach is to find out as much as possible about the specific tribal nation the story comes from.  This book contains some resources to do just that!

 

 

 

 

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