A Note from the President

Our mission is to spread the art and joy of storytelling throughout Missouri. We envision that Missourians will keep the oral tradition alive in our fair state. Sponsoring storytelling in the state parks was one of the ways we satisfied this mission. From MO-TELL’s inception, we have had a presence in the Missouri state parks.

For 35 years we have managed to place storytellers in the parks and the state historic sites with contributions from donors and from the Department of Natural Resources. Our intention was to treat our members/tellers as professionals and pay them a professional fee for their participation. Sometimes this isn’t possible, but we have managed.

In 2018, Becky Walstrom, one of our board members applied for a grant from the Missouri Arts Council to help cover some of the storytellers fees. We were very excited when we received news that our application had been approved and we had been awarded almost the full amount we had asked for. Our plan was to have twelve storytellers at 12 venues for the Fall of 2018 and the Spring of 2019 and to use this money along with contributions we received to pay for everything.

We will continue this long-standing tradition and do so with the help or our friends, The Department of Natural Resources, The Missouri State Parks Assoc., The Missouri Arts Council and our individual donors. To all these we are eternally grateful.

A thought for Your Day:

“Stories create community, enable us to see through the eyes of other people, and open us to the claims of others.”

– Peter Forbes photographer and author

Works: A Man Apart