Terry Visger – Storyteller

I began telling stories at a YMCA camp, where I worked as a “go-fer” and campfire coordinator.  When I told a story I had heard as a child and saw sixty boys sitting still around the fire, hanging on my every word, I knew I had found magic!  Later, as an elementary teacher, I began telling stories to my students and saw the educational value of stories.  Years later, I would tell stories to my own children as we drove to town.  I could do the entire Wizard of Oz, including songs, in that twenty-minute drive!  Stories were fun – something to share with kids and my friends.

Then, I took a storytelling class, just to earn a few credits, and I was hooked!  As I saw my teacher (and close friend), the late Sara Slayton, weave her stories, I knew this was what I wanted to do “when I grew up.”  I began telling stories to other classrooms in my school and had my first paying “gig” in Sparta, Wisconsin.  It was great!  That was in 2000 and I have been telling stories to a wide variety of ages and professions since that time.  It has been a great ride!

I taught elementary children for many fun-filled years.  I was then  an adjunct instructor at Viterbo University, where I taught others to be teachers and I taught a semester at UW-L.  I also did consulting work for JFK Associates.  I am an active member of the Bluff Country Tale Spinners and am on the Board of the La Crosse Storytelling Festival and WISGET, a Wisconsin storytelling group. I was also Northlands Storytelling Network board member and I am  a member of the National Storytelling Network.

I love stories of all kinds and truly believe the phrase from one of the stories I tell: “It is hard to hate someone once you know their story.”  So, come on!  Tell your story!! Or listen to one!