RECENT STORIES

Jeffco dishes up higher fees for restaurateurs ( Simon Moya-Smith/YourHub staff )
The real estate short sale dilemma ( Michael Robinson )
New community center in Lakewood ( jen schafer )
Small, but mighty Optimist Club raises big bucks ( Barbara Hanson )
Armchair travel books: The vicarious vacation ( Erin Todd )

share a story | more postings »

YourHub.com \\ Lakewood \\ Stories \\ Community \\ community happenings

Ollie, Ollie Oxen Free story slam

e-mail to a friend | print this | link to this

NEXT › ‹ PREVIOUS

Contributed by: SM Hackman on 4/3/2008

The 2008 "Ollie, Ollie Oxen Free" Story Slam was held March 29 in honor of Elm Farm Ollie, the first cow milked while flying in an airplane. Her milk was parachuted out to fans below, including Charles Lindbergh! Ollie made a guest appearance at the slam.

The story slam is the brainchild of Sunny Marie Hackman (Lakewood) and Cheri Seeton (Golden). This is the third year that these two professional storytellers and entertainers have celebrated Elm Farm Ollie Day by hosting the "Ollie, Ollie Oxen Free" Story Slam at the Lakewood Heritage Center in their historic schoolhouse.

Ten storytellers from all corners of the state competed for $100 and other fabulous prizes to the sell-out audience. Each storyteller told a 5-7 minute story resulting in a wonderful combination of folk tale, traditional tale, tall tale and personal story.

This year, Pete Martin, the 2007 First Place winner from Lakewood, got everyone in the moooood by retelling his winning story, Fowl Ball -- that's fowl ball with a 'w"'--and passing the title to Elsa Wolff, aka the Guitar Lady , of Morrison who wowed the crowd with her musical rendition of an old favorite from Dov Noy's Folktales of Israel, "The Wooden Sword." Elsa also won the People's Choice Award.

Second place went to Ken Nichols of Loveland with his telling of "The Song and Dance Man," a Karen Ackerman story. Ken was also the first place winner in the 2006 story slam but was not eligible to participate in 2007. His prize was full paid admission to the 33rd annual Rocky Mountain Storytellers' Conference, Friday and Saturday, April 25 and 26.

Steve Lee of Arvada, a life-long student of railroad history, placed third in the slam with his original story, "A.J. and Slither," as A.J. recollected a dangerous episode as a telegrapher on the Colorado & Wyoming Railroad. His prize was a 5-week storytelling class taught by professional storyteller, Susan Marie Frontczak, of Boulder.

The judges for the event were Teresa Pierson, a DU law school graduate and tradesmark paralegal for Hunter Douglas in Broomfield, Gerry Bodine, an account executive of 20 years for Kaiser Permanente, and Dr. Adam McVeigh, a dentist who is quickly establishing his reputation as the "Belmar Dentist" as a result of his "Belmar Smiles" weekly column in the Denver Post.

The timers and tabulators for the evening were Brad Hackman and Tom Seeton.

Our milkmaids, Claire Christian and Laura Wolff, served the attendees ice cream bars and Cow Tales.

Henry the Fiddler provided upbeat country music during the prelude, interludes and postlude. At intermission, Henry roused the crowd by playing the musical saw. www.htfiddler.net

The generous sponsors for not only this year's event but for the past two years were Whole Foods Market in Belmar, the Lakewood Heritage Center and The Mount Horeb Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb, WI.

"You do a fantastic job. This was truly a fun community event," remarked one audience member. "Thank you!"

The article on the inaugural youth story slam is entitled: "Young Storytellers Weave Magic into Story Slam" by Erin Feese, dated March 31, 2008.

For more information on the adult or youth story slams, the website is: ww.olliestoryslam.zoomshare.com

For more information on the Sunny and Cher(i) Show, call 303-279-2419.
www.merrycheri.com
>

[Report this as objectionable content.]

SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

Thank you! Your comment has been updated.

CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

SM Hackman

Lakewood , CO

SM Hackman has posted 162 stories and 2 comments since joining on 2/24/2006. SM Hackman's average story rating is 4.86.

view profile » view other postings from SM Hackman »

SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY

STORY RSS FEEDS

All stories

All stories in Lakewood

All stories by SM Hackman

WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?

Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

Loading Ad