Joy Steiner honored for her storytelling efforts

THE IDAHO STATESMAN Monday, July 3, 2000
By Dana Oland

Joy Steiner knows stories. From "Once upon a time ..." to "happily ever after," she's told a bevy of traditional tales and written more of her own.

She takes her storytelling to schools, retirement and veterans homes, and festivals and is a favorite around the valley.

Steiner recently was honored for her efforts with an award from the National Storytelling Association. She will travel on July 15 to a conference in Tennessee to receive the 2000 Western Region Leadership Award for her "diligence in creating, recording and performing stories across the west."

She started telling tales full time six years ago, when she and her husband, Stan, moved to Boise. Stan Steiner teaches elementary education at Boise State University.

"It was always a dream in the back of my head to tell stories full time," Steiner said, "so I tried it when we moved. I sort of fell through an open door and haven't regretted it since."

The first story she told was Kipling's "The Elephant's Child," she remembered. It's a story about how the elephant got its trunk

At the time, she was teaching young children in Wyoming about music.

"I didn't tell it very well, but all those squirmy little bodies were still, their eyes got real big and their jaws dropped. It was then I realized the power of stories."

This the second accolade for Steiner in as many months. In June, she received an Idaho Commission on the Arts grant for $2,137 for her in-school program. This is the fourth year she has received that grant.