IAN GARTMORE was raised in a home of storytellers, largely influenced by his mother’s Irish background. The power of ageless, well-told, stories is one Ian embraces. Around Town Tellers evenings are Ian’s favourite of the month, and he has attended since its inception. Ian values these evenings so much that he began to volunteer for ATT in 2024. Ian is a teller on occasion, preferring tales of courage, wisdom, and change.

PAT FORREST has lived in Nanaimo with her husband, Tom, since retiring from Calgary in 2011. She discovered storytelling when she met Margaret Murphy at a writing class with Elizabeth Ellis in the fall of 2017. Margaret told Pat she should sign up for the Art and Craft of Storytelling workshop in the spring. Pat did (She has learned that Margaret gives very good advice), and fell in love with storytelling. Since 2018, she has told stories up and down Vancouver Island (and also across Canada and in the USA, when she visits her kids and grandkids). She mostly writes and tells personal stories, but also enjoys telling stories written by others. She hones her craft by taking workshops in person, and online, whenever she can. 

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SANDY COLE moved to Nanaimo in 1989 from Ontario, where she told stories with volunteer groups and to children in her daycare. After taking the Around Town Tellers' storytelling workshop in 2007, Sandy discovered the joy of telling to an adult audience and has never looked back.  Sandy often writes and tells her own stories: personal stories, fictional stories, and wonder tales.  he tells in schools, festivals, senior residences, libraries, and has told on children's radio, at the Nanaimo Odyssey Epic Weekend, and in the Port Theatre 2011 Studio Series. Sandy is thrilled to be a member of Around Town Tellers, to participate in Stories on Friday, and to be on this life-changing, heart-warming path of storytelling.

RACHEL DUNSTAN MULLER has shared stories on both coasts and both sides of the border. She is the author of four children’s novels and over a hundred essays, articles and stories for adults, as well as the producer of two podcasts: Hintertales: Stories from the Margins of History, and Sticks and Stones and Stories. Her most recent project is a collaborative production called “Once Upon a Fiddle,” which celebrates the power of art and the resilience of the human spirit. Find her at https://racheldunstanmuller.com or https://sticksandstonesandstories.com.

LEE PORTEOUS became interested in storytelling after hearing a two part “Ideas” on CBC in 1986 but did little about it until joining the Victoria Storytellers’ Guild in 2006.

She takes every opportunity to tell stories to adults but participates in the local Speech and Dramatic Arts section of the Festival of the Performing Arts to encourage and recruit future storytellers.

She has told stories wherever invited; for example, during church services, the annual children’s memorial ceremony, a 40th wedding anniversary, a fundraiser, the library courtyard for Culture Days. In short, wherever there are those wonderful story folk: the story listeners.  She is also a frequent host for the Around Town Tellers.

CINDY SHANTZ has written and published short stories, personal essays and poetry, and has also written and produced a play, but once she tried storytelling she was hooked!  She loves the connection with the audience and has entertained and inspired audiences from Vancouver Island to Switzerland. Cindy mainly tells personal stories, which range from her humorous vision of a perfect 50th high school reunion to her first experience skydiving when she was 69. Along with Judy Millar, she was a member of the storytelling duo, WordChickz.  

ANGE FRYMIRE is an author, writer, teacher, mentor, freelance journalist, communications expert and storyteller. Core competencies include accountability, compassion, integrity, passion and being in service to her community. Her stories have been published in multiple print publications throughout BC. After retiring as a professor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), writing has been a catalyst for Ange's final trimester of living. She writes commercial fiction and poetry. She facilitated a creative writing circle for two years with the Federation of BC Writers and has committed to fostering excellence in the written and spoken word. She teaches writing and storytelling in Nanaimo, facilitates two summer writing intensive week-long camps for youth, is a storyteller and host for Nanaimo’s Around Town Storytellers and is vice-president of the Nanaimo Arts Council. Her stories were published in three books of memoirs by multiple writers and was a contributor in a multi-author communications textbook.

“My love for the written and spoken word awakes my curiosity,” she muses. “When I’m in the spaces between commas, periods and ellipses, my way out is through mindful awareness and more.”