What's New with Two Rivers Story Spinners

Welcome  Guild Basics About TRSS Meeting Minutes Tellings of Interest Registration Forms

Meetings, Dues, and More THIS SUNDAY 6/26!

Basic Guild Meeting format:

4:00 Arrival/Welcome  
4:05 Introductions 
4:10 Highlights of Past Meeting (Treasurer’s Report)  
4:15 Old Business 
4:25 New Business 
4:40 Presentation (if a workshop, times are adjusted)
5:00 Story Swap

July: Storytellers' Picnic@ Greenwood Park, shelter west of Art Center. Invite a friend and invite your 'fringe' side to come out: storytelling time will focus on more adult-themed tales

June: Spring into Summer Meeting 6/26 @ DM Playhouse  Telling Stories & Looking at what we tell via our media (website, Facebook, Twitter) Plus meet our summer intern, Kristen Smith

April: Early meeting time & place: 3rd rather than 4th Sunday of the month (Apr. 17th) at 4 pm in the Loud Room of the Des Moines Playhouse, 831 42nd Street, Des Moines.

 

March: We honored our friend, Dave Ashcraft, while promoting stories, & helping our collaboration with Forever Books.Barnes & Noble Ashcraft Project Fundraiser took place on Sat., March 5. Supported by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, The Polk County Jail, and Two Rivers Story Spinners, the project collects and distributes books to children who visit family members at the jail. We made enough to buy almost a thousand books.
 

As part of his job as a Librarian for Des Moines Public Libraries, Dave Ashcraft worked with the Polk County Jail to make books available for inmates. Dave also worked on a volunteer basis due to his passion for reading. When terminal cancer took Dave in 2009, members of his storytelling group, Two Rivers Story Spinners initiated The Ashcraft Project and began to collect books for charity in his name.

 

Visiting the Polk County Jail in her position as Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, Celeste F. Bremer noticed a need for children’s reading materials and activities. With her desire to provide a more positive experience for young visitors and Two Rivers Story Spinners passion for books and stories, Forever Books For Kids/The Ashcraft Project was born.

 

The opening ceremony of Forever Books For Kids/The Ashcraft Project was held at the Polk County Jail on April 20th (2010) with Maureen Korte representing TRSS. Books that had been purchased through a Two Rivers fundraising telling at Barnes and Nobles, along with books donated by individuals, the State Historical Society’s History Through the Arts, and several other organizations. Drake Graduate students participating in leadership classes have assisted with book fairs, marketing, collecting books and writing articles about the project. The Polk County jail expects to distribute over 100 books a week. So far, the project has collected over 5,000 books with the goal of collecting and distributing 5,500 each year.


 

Telling Times March 6 @ WDM Barnes & Noble