My Blog

The Beach Day Mystery aka "The Beach Boys"

04/30/2012 21:59:00

Here's the latest super-creative story by the amazing folks at WellSpring Day Program!

The Beach Day Mystery

aka

"The Beach Boys"

Brian Wilson and Mike Love are having an argument. They are about to get into a fight about who is going to get the surfboard first. Maybe Mike will get it. There are people standing around who want to watch the fight.

Mike Love and Brian Wilson are good friends. They are fighting because of sibling rivalry. They Mystery Man, Bob, might be getting ready to play leap-frog or to tackle Zach. Zach is getting ready to join the fight.

Zach is the older brother who is trying to stop the fight. Zach stopped the fight, but then there was a change in the weather. BOOM! They were still fighting and there was rain, thunder, and lightning. It was a monsoon! They got their faces filled with sand and it sounded like a tornado and so much sand in their faces, they couldn't see.

Then a seagull gets blown right into Mike Love and Brian Wilson and the fight intensifies! Then they stumbled and fell into the water, because they couldn't see.

They are ok. They can both swim, and then they started to water fight. Everything is wet and they are splashing around. All of a sudden, they started doing "Water Zumba!" Gwen tried doing Zumba, too. Then they got too far out into the water and a shark came out of the water. It was a bull shark. The two of them are still fighting and they punched the shark with the surfboard, and the shark was hit so hard, it swam off! He should have known shark self-defense!

There is still a monsoon and seagulls flying all over the place. It's a disastrous day! Now an adult comes along from scuba-diving. Actually, it's a lifeguard who is also a shark biologist (sort of like Lauren.) and he told them to both take half of the surfboard. Mike Love and Brian Wilson go to get the teeth of the saw-tooth shark to cut the surfboard in half. They both agreed this time. Now, they still have half a surfboard and so they went surfing together.

All of a sudden, Mike Love and Brian Wilson woke up. Mom came into the room and showed them a surfboard and said, "Hey guys! Let's go surfing!"

They walked to the beach, but there were signs everywhere that said "Beware of Sharks!" In fact, the signs had pictures of sharks on surfboards because these were "Surfboard-eating Saw-toothed Sharks!"

THE END

The Wedding Day Mystery

04/22/2012 23:07:00

Last week, at the wonderful WellSpring Day Program in Castle Rock, CO, we started a new program called Timeslips. (www.timeslips.org)

here's the story that resulted:

"The Wedding Day Mystery"

aka

"The Reception"

It's the wedding day. The bride, Lauren Jackie, ran home, kind of like the movie "Runaway Bride." She was scared of the groom, Mike Paul. She did not want to eat the cake because it was called "dirt cake" with Gummi Worms inside.

Lauren Jackie's friends are at the table and Lauren Jackie was embarrassed because she didn't want to dance. She was a bad dancer. She didn't go to Zumba enough!

She had forgotten that this was her wedding day and she had not practiced singing the song she was supposed to sing. And there was a mouse in her shoe. She did have a beautiful dress.

The groom threw the cake in her face because he was being bad. She had chocolate in her ear. Mike Paul was angry that she wouldn't dance. The mouse started crawling up and chewed a hole in her dress.

She got in her car and drove away -- actually, she drove a bus. The mouse was biting off her nose. Lauren Jackie went to the mall to get some makeup for her nose. And all her friends came with, but not Mike Paul because men do not like to go to the makeup department.

Mike Paul stayed back and ate the rest of the cake.

Lauren Jackie did not want to put makeup on. The makeup was invisible and no one could see it. Lauren Jackie wouldn't come out of the store. Her friends told her, "He isn't worth it."

She was eating fast food. She was eating a hamburger at McDonald's and a large fries and a large coke. and she had a hamburger from Bud's Bar. She ate it with her friends.

Mike Paul got sick from eating all the dirt cake. He got sick because the cake was poisonous.

Chris Frederick came to the mall and bought flowers for Lauren Jackie. They were roses and Lauren Jackie and Chris Frederick had a good day and a "happily ever after."

The End

p.s. She got plastic surgery and got a new nose.

Words matter

04/05/2012 21:50:00

I have always loved words. As a storyteller, I have loved the nuance of finding exactly the right word to correctly evoke emotion, to create a scene. When I began working with people with disabilities, the words I chose took on even more importance.

"Imbecile."

"Moron."

"Idiot."

All these words at one time were clinical designations for levels of developmental disability, but as they crept into the common lexicon, as they became insults to be hurled in the heat of anger and cruelty, they fell out of favor in the clinical world.

"Retarded," sadly, remains. The correct clinical term for a person with an IQ below a certain level is "mentally retarded." I have watched people with disabilities and their family members visibly flinch when that phrase is used.

Because people will not stop using it as an insult. On school yards, it's a favorite. But even well-educated, prominent adults, who would never publicly use a racist or homophobic epithet, resort to the word "retard." They use it flippantly or they use it with an eye toward the pain it can cause.

Perennial "Girl Next Door" actress Jennifer Aniston once said of her job: "I play dress up. I do it for a living. Like a retard."

Rahm Emanuel, former White House Chief of Staff and current Mayor of Chicago notoriously called a group of activists "fucking retarded" for pursuing a strategy he felt was damaging to the White House.

So, it's time to permanently retire the word. It's time for clinicians, social workers, teachers and everyone else to follow the example of "Advocacy Denver" (www.advocacydenver.org) formerly the Denver Chapter of the Association of Retarded Citizens, and stop using the word entirely.

And while we're at it, let's look at other ways people with developmental disabilities are described:

"Unfortunate"

"Afflicted"

"Hopeless"

I have known people with developmental disabilities who have great capacity for joy, who have tremendous appreciation for their lives and the people in it, who have wonderful senses of humor, and who know what they want and are in no way reluctant about expressing it. And how dare we assign to them a life of sadness, a life of hopelessness?

Words matter, to everyone and for everyone, always.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVgoS_IQXck

Passing the Torch

03/29/2012 10:20:00

I love telling stories. I love the feeling it gives me, to be able to make people laugh, smile, cry, and experience the world in a new way.

Telling to people with developmental disabilities is a special kind of a gift for a storyteller, because when I tell to these audiences, I am bringing story to people who rarely get to be "in on" the story. The joy and the connection is extraordinary.

It's a little bit selfish -- how much I love what I do.

So the selfless thing -- the hard thing -- is giving my stories away. I go to day programs and to schools, and I teach the staff how to tell these stories so that they can be told over and over again. I do it because I believe that with repetition, our mission at Touching Stories of creating community and connection through story will be achieved, but I never really understood the power of it until I saw this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOiWZSLZT0Q&feature=g-all-u&context=G2d19772FAAAAAAAAAAA

I saw this for the first time this morning, and it is the first time I have ever seen someone I've trained tell our stories to a real audience. It was breathtaking.

As much as I love being the person who brings stories to audiences, as much as I love having the power to make people laugh, smile, and cry; this is so much more. To watch the work we've done grow and expand in the hands of caring professionals is beyond compare.

Please help us continue to grow our program, to reach more audiences and more of these wonderful professionals by donating to Touching Stories at

http://www.indiegogo.com/Touching-Stories-1

"Jake's head"

03/15/2012 22:45:00

One of the most wonderful things about being a storyteller is the shared connection between the audience and me. There is something truly magical about the giving and receiving of a story that allows everyone -- those hearing the story and the person telling it -- to grow and be enriched by the experience.

Multi-sensory storytelling looks a little different than the storyteller at the campfire. Different than Garrison Keillor or the wonderful storycraft on programs like The Moth or This American Life.

In multi-sensory storytelling, the stories are simple -- short on plot and character and long on sensory experience. These stories are more snapshot than portrait.

And yet... that special connection still occurs.

Last week, I was telling at a wonderful day program. Housed in a farmhouse, the place emanates warmth and comfort. Participants sit in easy chairs and on couches rather than in institutional plastic chairs, bright rugs cover the floors and the walls are painted a soft, buttery yellow.

I was telling the story of The Monster on Grandma's Bed. In that story, young Sarah, at Grandma's house for a sleepover, is awakened by a terrifying sound in the middle of the night. When she reaches out in the dark to see what's there, she encounters something furry. The sensory item for this part of the story is a canvas board covered in short, thick faux fur.

As always, I asked the participants what they thought it was. Usually, the responses I get are "a wolf," "a bear," or "a monster." But on this day, all the participants were in agreement: the board felt like "Jake's head."

Jake* was one of the audience members there that day. A young man in his early twenties, Jake was a storyteller's dream. Engaged and enthusiastic, he had a bright smile and a lot to say. As the board was passed from audience member to audience member, and as each said that they thought that the thing that Sarah was feeling in that dark room was Jake's head, his smile grew wider.

The audience laughed on cue when the story went on to reveal that the furry thing was grandma's fuzzy bathrobe and the terrible sound was Grandma's loud snores, but at this telling -- different from any other time I've told it -- that punchline was not the best part of the story. The sparkle had happened when they had made the decision to make that furry thing Jake's head. I had a lot of fun with it, but didn't really understand.

After the story was over, and I was packing up, Jake came to talk to me.

He told me that he is a cancer survivor, and had only in the last few months finished his course of chemotherapy. His hair had just come back.

And in that telling, in that delightful, spontaneous improvisation, the whole room had celebrated the return of Jake's hair.

It just goes to show, no matter how simple, there's a whole lot of connecting that happens when a story is told.

Please help us continue telling our stories by going to http://www.indiegogo.com/Touching-Stories-1 and support our campaign!

*not his real name

The way a story smells

03/12/2012 23:29:00

A few weeks ago, I sang the praises of our favorite hardware store for finding all sorts of pieces for our multi-sensory stories that felt good. (www.bigtoolbox.com) I also talked about my love of the percussion section of the local music store for finding the way a story sounds. (www.guitarcenter.com)

Today, I got to do one of my favorite job as a Touching Stories storyteller. In the aromatherapy section of Isis Books in Englewood (www.isisbooks.com) I get to explore how stories smell.

The geniuses at Isis can listen to me describe what I want people to be smelling -- a pine tree, a lilac bush, the spices of India, apple pie, rain -- and taking their little blue and green glass bottles, they mix up something that is complex, layered, and exactly what I am looking for. Today, I asked for apple pie. The aromatherapist grinned and said "I know exactly how to do that."

She mixed some of this, some of that, a little cinnamon, a touch of nutmeg, a splash of apple and... she placed the bottle under my nose. I inhaled and smelled apple pie, fresh out of the over. Then, as i was lowering the bottle, I caught the last scent -- vanilla. Apple pie ala mode!

We use essential oils for our story kits. The aromas are more authentic than anything we could find in synthetic scents, and they don't break down, which means that the scent will be as wonderful, as evocative six months or six years from now as it is today.

It's more expensive to do it this way. It would be cheaper and easier to use air fresheners or candle scents, but the difference is unbelievably worth it.

Please help us continue to provide the highest quality sensory materials to our audiences by donating at www.indiegogo.com/Touching-Stories-1.

God bless you!

03/07/2012 00:00:00

"God bless you!"

"There's a special place in heaven for you"

If I were going to write one of those Sh*t People Say to Social Workers memes, those phrases would certainly be prominently featured. I've been a social worker for almost 15 years, a social worker for people with developmental disabilities for over 7 years, and a storyteller for people with developmental disabilities for just about a year.

I've heard those phrases thousands of times.

They've always rubbed me the wrong way, but I was never able to express exactly why. The people who say these things to me are well-intentioned, and sincere I think. Yet it never ceases to raise my hackles when I hear it.

I was talking with a friend this weekend, and my irritation with the sainthood that sometimes is thrust upon me came up. My friend hit it on the head. "They say that because you're doing the work they would never want to do," he said.

And he's right. And that's what bugs me. By making me a saint, people don't have to take responsibility for the fact that there are people with needs in the world. They don't have to do anything about it, because the people who work with them are somehow different from regular people. Saints with a special place in heaven.

Here's the truth. I want to be doing the work I'm doing. And I want to do it because I like it, because I'm good at it, and because it gives me joy. I neither need nor want a special place in heaven for doing the job I like -- any more than the carpenter who loves building bookshelves or the accountant who gets tremendous satisfaction from crunching numbers.

Lately, I've been doing a lot of things that are not part of the job I love. I've been marketing. I know it's important, and I know that if we are to grow as an agency, I need to think about crafting our message and getting it out into the world, but after two months of making promotional videos, heightening our on-line presence and looking for potential donors, I am starting to feel less like a storyteller and more like a professional marketer.

I have been filmed telling stories, which basically means telling stories while trying to work around the camera and trying not let my backside be featured overly prominently. I have been filmed talking about our work -- and the words that seem so natural in conversations about what we do suddenly elude me when faced with the blinking red light of a video camera.

I have coordinated PayPal accounts, crowdsourcing websites, and email lists. I have sent appeals out for donations to everyone I have ever known -- and during that time, storytelling has taken a backseat. It's been difficult.

I reached my low point this morning, when, after two weeks of calling and emailing and uploading, begging and pleading and promising my first born son, I finally got our PayPal account up and running, only to find out that the crowdsourcing website we're working with, Indie Go Go, is somehow not recognizing our PayPal account.

I was down the rabbit hole.

Crazy, I went for broke, testing the crowdsourcing website over and over, hoping for a different result -- to no avail. In the process i accidentally ended up donating $10 to a plus-sized woman named Twixx, who is hoping that Indie Go Go will help her achieve her dream of becoming a comedianne -- best of luck Twixx!

Hopefully, it will be worth it. Through our Indie Go Go account, we have 60 days to earn the money we need to create new stories and training videos that will help us get more story kits into more hands. Check out our campaign at

http://www.indiegogo.com/Touching-Stories-1?a=447660

The wonderful people at Your Story Co (http://www.yourstoryco.com/about_us.html)

have done an amazing job of capturing the work we do.

Hopefully, we'll have the PayPal function up and running tomorrow. In the meantime, if you don't need a tax deduction, you can choose the "pay by credit card" option. Or you can donate directly though this website. Either way, watch the video and spread the word!

And sixty days from now, I hope to be able to take a break from marketing and get back to the job that I love so much.

In the meantime, I say to all the marketing professionals out there: "God Bless You!" and "There's a special place in heaven for you!"

Finding sensory stories

02/19/2012 23:26:00

The Hardware Store will never be the same to me... nor will the fabric store, the craft store or the music store.

Everywhere I go these days, I find myself touching, feeling for sharp edges, thumping for sound effect, squeezing things, turning them upside down -- I have become a sensory-seeking machine!

People often ask where the ideas come from for our stories. Occasionally, someone will have an idea for a story that's based on a folktale, a memory, or a story they've heard from one of our clients that is the basis for a story.

Often, though, the story comes together in the hardware store. Walking through our favorite hardware place (The Big Toolbox in Centennial, CO is the best -- a real, old fashioned neighborhood hardware store filled with people who know hardware and are willing to go to great lengths to help us find the linoleum tile that feels most like elephant skin. www.bigtoolbox.com), we find things that are shiny, or that make a cool noise, or feel really good when squeezed or shaken, and we NEED to make a story using that item -- and that's the starting place.

The other day, at the music store with my recently guitar-obsessed son, I found a Remo Thunder Tube. It's a little cardboard tube, about 6 inches long and two inches in diameter with a drum skin stretched across one end and a long, flexible spring hanging out of it like a tail. Shake it, and BINGO -- thunder! I knew we needed to use it.

I brought the tube to our next meeting. My 5-year-old niece offered up her rainstick to go with it, someone else mentioned the idea of opening and closing an umbrella. Toss in flashing lights for lightning, a squirt bottle for rain, and we had the beginnning of a really exciting new story!

Sometimes it all comes together and works -- like with Renee's Ride, one of our most recent stories that started with a wheelchair brake and a bottle of lilac scent and became a story with fable contruction about a crazy ride down a long hill in a wheel chair.

Other times, the idea is there, the items are there, but, for some reason, we can't get the story right. And we have to scrap it and begin again.

A great deal goes in to creating a good sensory story. Is it short, simple, and sensory-based? Are there sensory elements that will coincide with every sentence of the story? Are the sensory elements durable, portable, affordable and safe? Can it be replicated? Can it be used by people with limited fine motor skills or range of motion?

After we have a product for which we can answer yes to all the following question, we begin to pilot the story, presenting it to real audiences of people with developmental disabilities (a BIG shout-out here to Laradon Hall in Denver www.laradon.org for being our go-to place for piloting our stories). Sometimes it works, and sometimes, even after we have done everything "right," the story just falls flat -- it doesn't engage the audience. And then it's back to the drawing board.

All in all, it takes months of work and hundreds of dollars to create new stories, but once we have a story that works -- well, that's priceless.

Sloppy Joes for Breakfast (and for a good cause!)

02/11/2012 00:54:00

We at Touching Stories are so excited by some new opportunities coming soon!

It's been a big year for Touching Stories. Our first full calendar year has brought a grant from Douglas County,opportunities to travel throughout the state with our stories, chances to present our techniques to librarians and occupational therapists and now...

In a new adventure, we will be starting our first Kickstarters campaign!

For those of you who've not yet heard of Kickstarters, it's a fantastic new concept in fundraising. We'll post a video of our work on the Kickstarters website, and everyone (I'm lookin' at YOU!) can watch the video, see what we do, and donate to us! More details to come...

Meanwhile,our very good friends at Simply Sloppy Joes home.comcast.net/~simplysloppyjoes/index.htm

are opening their doors early on Wednesday, Feb 15th for a fundraiser for Touching Stories! Simply Sloppy Joes is located in Lakewood at 6761 West Mississippi Avenue.

These delicious Joes are great for lunch and dinner -- why not as an early morning eye-opener? Come by between 6:00 and 9:00, mention Touching Stories, and the proceeds of your purchase will go DIRECTLY to us!

Local newscaster Dan Daru will be there with cameras, so come ready for your close-up! This is a great chance to support a wonderful local business and to help Touching Stories, so don't miss out!

If a rich, tender, juicy sandwich for breakfast isn't your bag, come by during normal business hours (11:00-7:00) on the 15th and 25% of the proceeds will go to Touching Stories.

Jennifer Loberg, owner of Simply Sloppy Joes and our gracious hostess, wanted me to let you know that good things come in small packages. Simply Sloppy Joes is a little place, so you may not be able to get a seat. Don't worry! Joes are just as good to go!

So come on out on Feb 15th! And don't forget to mention Touching Stories!

Gratitude

02/01/2012 23:02:00

We have big news here at Touching Stories today. We received notification that our application to become a 501(c)(3) corporation was approved! As an official non-profit, we can now apply for grants that will help us get Touching Stories kits into so many more classrooms, day programs and libraries.

As wonderful as this development is, we also have so much to be grateful for in terms of community support.

Touching Stories officially "launched" as a company at a small fund-raising event nine months ago at Southglenn Library. About thrity people came, heard about our work, and donated what they could to get us going. The proceeds of that event paid for a trip starting in Ft. Collins and ending in Grand Junction. Along the way, we told our stories, dropped off kits, and trained staff how to use them.

Today, nine months later, we have so much to be grateful for and so many to be grateful to. Here's a short list:

Laradon Hall (www.laradon.org) who have supported our efforts, bringing us out multiple times to tell stories to their clients, and paving the way for us to bring new stories to light.

Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill (www.eatgarbanzo.com) who held a fundraiser for us in October.

Susan Marie Frontczak (www.Storysmith.org) an amazing local storyteller, who heard that we were in need of a computer and generously donated hers.

Your Story Co (www.yourstoryco.com) This amazing team is helping us create a series of videos to get the word out about our work!

Rather Poetic Phtotography and Design (www.ratherpoetic.com) thanks to Laurie Fox for making beautiful bags to keep our kits in

Douglas County Human Services (www.douglas.co.us/humanservices) for providing us the grant that has allowed us to start telling our stories in a new part of the state

Douglas County Libraries (www.douglascountylibraries.org) for helping us with the Human Services grant and for being such great advocates for inclusion and multi-sensory storytelling

Simply Sloppy Joes (http://home.comcast.net/~simplysloppyjoes/index.htm) who have invited us to take part in an exciting event on February 15th! More on that later...

Thanks to our wonderful Board: Lara Kroha, Jamie Wynn, Cathy Mueller and Erin Phipps for their tireless support, energy and enthusiasm

and to our volunteers: Bob, Amy, Regina, Ursula, Trey and Misty who have pitched in with good ideas, helping hands and encouragement.

All of these companies and individuals -- all Colorado locals -- have provided us with amazing support without which we could not be here doing what we're doing.