On Friday evening June 21, the BSCB Social Committee hosted our first ever Story Slam at the Carroll Center. About 25 persons attended, and 15 story tellers regaled the crowd with sometimes funny and sometimes poignant tales.

How did it work? A story slam is an opportunity to tell a favorite story to a crowd. It’s like karaoke (that is “kareeoki” for screen reader users) without the music. Stories needed to be true and from the story teller’s own experience. The theme of the evening was : “Stranger than fiction.”

Sylvia Dowling and the tag team of Anne and Jim Donna were awarded $25 Amazon gift cards for the best stories by a distinguished judging panel composed of Mary Haroyan and Cheryl Cumings.

You can listen to the stories below, and sstart thinking about what your own story will be for next year


  1. Lee Berrier – Summer Camp
  2. Jeanette Kutash – The Wicked Queen
  3. Rosemarry Miller – I Love the Ride
  4. Jerry Berrier – It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
  5. Sylvia Dowling – Catharsis
  6. Cassandra Xavier – The Hearing Scare
  7. Sharon Strzalkowski – Travel Mercies
  8. David Kingsbury – Zambian Elevator Story
  9. Nona Haroyan – White House Tour Gone Awry
  10. Elizabeth Ann Johnson – Childhood Antics
  11. Nick Corbett – Father’s Day in the Oven
  12. Steve Dresser – Driving Blind
  13. Jennifer Harnish – Snakes
  14. DeAnn Elliott – Ice Cream Social
  15. Jim and Anne Donna – Our Trip to Montreal