Sylvia was introduced to Spellbinders in 2005 by her friend Norma Frohach and completed the training class that same year. She began telling stories at Dos Rios for the Kindergarten children and has been at Appleton School for the past five years. Sylvia prefers telling to Kindergarners versus the older children.

Sylvia is a soft spoken, quiet humble person who is warm, friendly and quick to smile. She has a twinkle in her eye and willingly shares with others her deep wisdom, tolerance and compassion which she has gathered from her rich life experiences.

She was born in Hotchkiss, Colorado in 1934, the eldest of seven children and graduated from Grand Junction High School in 1951. She went to the University of Colorado to study nursing and met Martin Bingham who was in the Air Force and stationed at Lowery Air Force Base in Denver. They married in 1953 and Silvia decided Nursing was not her area of interest. Martin loved the mountains of Colorado and decided to pursue a teaching career. He graduated from Western State in 1960 and eventually taught in Gunnison, Hayden, St. Petersburg and Grand Junction.

During those years Sylvia and Bing had five children, one girl and four boys and life was full and very busy. In 1966 they moved the family to St. Petersburg Florida to be with Bing's elderly father. During those years in St. Petersburg Sylvia completed her B.A. degree at the University of South Florida majoring in psychology and philosophy. In 1974 after Bing's father passed away they moved the family back to the Grand Valley to be close to the Colorado mountains which they both loved.

Sylvia began teaching at Hilltop's Preschool for Developmentally Delayed Children in 1976 while simultaneously studying and completing a Masters Degree in Early Childhood Special Education. In 1988 she went on to help develop District 51's Colorado Preschool Program and worked with that program until she retired in 1992.  

After Bing and Sylvia both retired from teaching they joined the Peace Corp and spent two years in Jamaica developing programs and schools for children with special needs. At that time there were very few services for children with special needs in Jamaica. These children were mainly kept at home and usually lived very short lives. It was a firsthand experience to witness the benefits of what a developed nation could offer a struggling nation.

In 2008 Sylvia went on another adventure of service this time with a granddaughter. They traveled to El Salvador to help build a school. Oh, and not to forget to mention the five Bingham children had grown into 17 grandchildren and ten great grandchildren...a virtual large audience ready to listen to Grandma Sylvia's wonderful stories.

Some of Sylvia's interests include: hiking, skiing, spinning and carding wool and traveling. She and Bing have traveled to Mexico, Hawaii, Alaska, Greece, Scotland and Jamaica.

Sylvia also loves libraries, books, stories and children. She truly enjoys building a relationship with the teachers and the children she tells to and continues to add stories each year to her repertoire. The Bingham's live on a farm outside of Fruita and raise sheep. Once a year Sylvia tells a story about a sheep and shows the children the art of carding, spinning and knitting wool.  

Her favorite story about a sheep is, "A Rare Provider." Other tales she enjoys telling: "Brave Little Seamstress" (a rewrite of Brave Little Tailor) and a story written by her grandson called, "Stick Figures." He won 3rd place in the PBS Early Story Makers Competition for this story.

The wisdom Sylvia offers to all of us is to love these children we are telling to...get to know their teachers and create a relationship of respect and appreciation. Some wisdom she shared from her mother...."You can worry about the children if you must, but the only real thing you can do is to provide them with a model of a happy constructive life."  

Great advice! Thank you Sylvia for sharing your story with all of us.

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Janice Shephard likes to share  stories of how places got their names. Janice told us about Mount Silverheels in the Park National Forest and the Legend of Silverheels. There was a beautiful  young  woman who worked as a dance hall "fancy lady"  in the mining town of Buckskin Joe. She was the sweetheart of the miners who  called her Silverheels because of the lovely slippers she wore. In 1861-62  a terrible smallpox epidemic broke out and great numbers of the population were stricken ill and many died.. A call for help was sent out to Denver, but none arrived. Silverheels became an angel of mercy,tending the town's sick and dying. When at last the sickness was gone, the people gathered an enormous sum of money to give in gratitude to Silverheels, but found no one at home in her cabin.  It was said that she had also contracted smallpox and survived, but that her lovely visage had been disfigured. No one ever saw or spoke to her in person again, but in the many years since, some claim to have seen a veiled woman in a long black dress carrying flowers and walking among the graves at Buckskin Joe Cemetery.
Thank you Janice for enthusiastically and energetically sharing this tale and for inspiring us to explore our state's history!

(Note the link to the Legend of Silverheels takes you to a blog called "Rocky Mountain Legends" so you may want to check out some of the other stories found there.)