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Festival Contact Information
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Patty Smith
Director of Storytelling Programs
Midland Independent School District (MISD)
615 West Missouri Avenue
#222
Midland, Texas 79701
(432) 689-1017
E-mail: psmith@midlandisd.net
Picture: Patty (Tim Fischer, Chief Photographer, Midland Reporter-Telegram)
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A Texas Fairy Tale
Once upon a time, an innovative West Texas school district introduced its teachers, students, and community members to the magic of story. Imagine the district’s surprise when students of all ages remembered teensy, tiny details skillfully woven into tellers’ stories. Voluntarily and gleefully, these learners retold tales to family members and friends. Simultaneously, district personnel mulled and meditated about the merits of an instructional model that enticed students to organize random thoughts and polish skills, both oral and verbal. Seasoned as well as inexperienced teachers expressed wonder over a technique that instilled the belief that everyone possesses stories worth sharing. Over and over again, sheer joy swept through the school district as audience members of all ages either laughed at or wept about foibles of story characters. School personnel shuddered to think what evil might befall the district if tellers failed to welcome in the winter holidays in Midland with stories. Thus . . . Celebrations of Light!
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A Few Facts
Storytelling, as an organized instructional program, entered the Midland schools as a result of two directors, one of social studies and one of language arts, attending the Winter Tales Festival in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1992. Lady Luck smiled upon these two, Patty Smith and Lucinda Windsor, introduced them to Donald Davis and Rex Ellis, showed the directors how to integrate story techniques across the curriculum, and the rest is history! Just like Topsy, MISD’s Celebrations of Light has mushroomed from one day to more than three weeks, 165 contacts to 13,831, and one newspaper story to local, state, and national awards:
- National Storytelling Association’s Service Award for the southwestern region of the United States in Indianapolis, Indiana, 1997; the American Institute of Public Service’s Jefferson Award in Midland, Texas, 2005 (Patty Smith);
- National Youth Storytelling Grand Torchbearer in competition at Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, 2006 (Stephanie Strauss);
- one of six grants from the National Storytelling Network (NSN) in Jonesborough, Tennessee, with festival history published in March/April issue of NSN’s Storytelling Magazine, 2006; and
- one of fifteen Texas “Annie Awards” from Delta Kappa Gamma, Chapter Epsilon Eta, women’s professional educators’ organization, for originating an innovative student story-writing-thinking-skills program, 2006.
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