Thanks from Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival organizers
To the Editor:
The Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival, held live at the Historic Grove Theatre June 3 and 4, has many people to thank.
We are especially grateful to the three Oak Ridge Rotary Clubs for sponsoring the Festival, and we thank the dozens of volunteers, many of them Rotarians, who make it possible. Our large committee of volunteers provides guidance and assistance all year long.
We know you cannot have a storytelling festival without an audience, and we appreciate all the people who attended from our community, surrounding communities and from out-of-state. Due to COVID, we had to cancel the Festival in 2020 and hold a virtual Festival in 2021. We were not sure how strongly we could come back live, and we thank you for attending in 2022.
We are grateful to Charles Crowe’s vision to ask nationally acclaimed storyteller, Sheila Arnold, to write and tell the story of “The Secret City’s Secret City: Scarboro.” She wove in the story of the Scarboro 85, those brave youngsters who desegregated the Oak Ridge Schools in 1955, to help us start with an emotional, powerful evening Friday.
We especially want to thank Consolidated Nuclear Security at Y-12 National Security Complex for being the Festival’s Presenting Sponsor.
We are grateful to Pinnacle Bank for underwriting the Friday night performance by Ms. Sheila, as she is known on the national storytelling circuit. We are so glad that some members of the Scarboro 85 and their families could be there.
Along with Ms. Sheila, Bil Lepp and Kim Weitkamp, two more of our country’s foremost tellers, gave us three wonderful sessions on Saturday.
Ray Smith conducted a fascinating historic tour of our city for hometown folks and visitors alike for the Tales on Friday.
Michelle Bradley Campanis and Vince Staten were our engaging emcees, Carolyn Krause had incredible follow-up stories in The Oak Ridger, Ben Pounds gave us an inside story on Sheila, Jason Herrera gave us lights and sound, ProMotion provided professional video services for Sheila’s presentation, Carolyn and Mike Slay provided still photography and Laura Hammons conducted our follow-up Lessons Learned.
Our other sponsors who helped make all this happen are Pat Postma (Legends); Martha and David Hobson, Emily and Charlie Jernigan, Kay and Bill Whitman (Tall Tales); Amy and Nathan Fields, Melanie and Vince Staten of Staten Communications, Ink (Yarns); Bridgewater Hearing and Balance, Chuck’s Car Care, Jan and Stu Elston, TNBank, the UT Arboretum (Vignette); Erin and Patrick Block, Michelle Bradley Campanis, Berta Swain (Anecdotes).
And, thanks to Barbara Ferrell of The Ferrell Shop for helping with ticket sales. She supports so many organizations with her time, and we are glad she gives so freely to Flatwater Tales.
We are already working on ideas for next year. See you again the first weekend of June 2023.
Flatwater Tales, Executive Committee
Emily Jernigan, Chair
Martha Moore Hobson, Vice-Chair
Pat Postma, Secretary
Charlie Jernigan, Treasurer
Lydia Birk, Operations
Charles Crowe, Special Events
David O. Hobson, At Large
This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Letter: Thanks from Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival organizers
