LINDON — These young folks are certainly not afraid of speaking in front of large groups of people.
Truth be told, they thrive on telling tall tales.
A trio of Utah County students — Caden Watts, Dallin Wootton, Belinda Ofa Fotu — recently won top honors in their respective age groups at the National Storytelling Youth Olympics in Hanford, Calif.
Only 14 youth storyteller finalists are chosen nationwide to participate in the National Storytelling Youth Olympics and no more than five of them can be from the same state.
Four Utahns — Watts, Wootton, Ofa Fotu and Camille Broderick, an eighth-grader at Oak Canyon Junior High — were picked to go to the storytelling championships. Ofa Fotu, who attends Pleasant Grove High School, was the only high-schooler picked from Utah.
Over the three days, the finalists performed for elementary schools, high schools and college student audiences. The finalists were not only judged on performance but also on their "ambassador skills." People called "silent judges" walked around and scored the finalists on their interpersonal skills. This makes up about 40 percent of their final score.
A national competition may seem intense, but these finalists said it was more friendly than dog-eat-dog. "They said everyone was a winner by getting there," said Watts, a fourth-grader at Highland Elementary. "And we each got a trophy for being there."
All the finalists got a 20-inch-tall trophy, while the first-place winners, also known as the "torchbearers," received a 24-inch-tall trophy.
So how did four Utah students get picked to compete at the national level?
A major reason is that local kids are able to perform at the annual Timpanogos Storytelling Festival in Orem, said Nannette Watts, Caden's mother.
Wootton, an eighth-grader at Oak Canyon Junior High, and Watts have performed at the Timpanogos Story Telling festival three times, and Broderick performed at the festival five times. The crowd size at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival is usually close to 1,700 people.
"(The nervousness) used to be so bad, like you are going to faint," Broderick said about performing in front of crowds. "But as you go on, it feels like the audience gets smaller."
Every year, up to 25 elementary and junior high students are chosen from the Alpine School District to perform at the Timpanogos Story Telling Festival. This youth program has been in place for 13 years.
"Every person is a storyteller," said Nannette Watts, who is also a volunteer at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. "It helps families, and that's why I think in our community it has become so big because it encourages all of us to tell our stories, and that is why we are trying to train."
The key to storytelling is the story itself. Watts, Wootton and Broderick pick children's books that are not familiar, looking for story lines that have different characters and have the potential to be expressive.
After they pick a story, they try to memorize it and refine performance techniques.
Wootton and Broderick practice their storytelling techniques through families mentoring or watching other people. Watts was coached by professional storytellers through his elementary school.
Wootton got his first taste of storytelling when he was 6 years old. He loved "Three Billy Goats Gruff" said his mother, Kaylani Wootton. Dallin Wootton memorized the story and was so expressive and enthusiastic about it that Kaylani Wootton thought that he would do well in storytelling.
Caden Watts comes from a long line of storytellers, he said. His mom, Nannette, performed at storytelling events before Caden was born and continues that love through her involvement at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. Caden's siblings are also storytellers and went to the National Storytelling Youth Olympics last year.
"It is something these kids can use for the rest of their lives," Nannette Wootton said. "It is a talent that fits right in their lives and makes them better than they could have been."
E-mail: jdoria@desnews.com