Grandma Gatewood’s story featured at the 2023 Women’s Storytelling Festival

I’m so excited to announce that I will be joining six other women at the 2023 Women’s Storytelling Festival’s contest to tell stories of perseverance. Emma “Grandma” Gatewood’s story of conquering the Appalachian Trail at 67 years old after raising 11 children and surviving domestic abuse is the perfect example of perseverance.

The festival will take place on Friday March 24, 2023 and runs through Sunday, March 26, 2023 both in-person at The Old Town Hall in Fairfax, VA, as well as streaming live online. The contest will be on Saturday, March 25. Judging for the contest will be based on audience votes combined with the judges’ scores. Our judges for the 2023 festival are award-winning storytellers, Sheila Arnold and Noa Baum!*

It’s hard to believe that Kelly Boyer Sagert, and Peter Huston joined me back in 2009 to begin our own “Appalachian Trail Hike” to tell Grandma Gatewood’s story. And we’re still bringing her to new audiences! We’re so grateful to everyone who helped support us in this project through donations, encouragement, attending and/or hosting events.

You helped us bring her story to life! “On October 25, 1887 Emma Rowena Caldwell was born ‘… in a … house back of Mercerville about a mile from where the creeks fork.’” That’s located in Gallia County, close to the Ohio River in the southernmost part of the state. A hop, skip and jump from West Virginia, really.

“When Emma was born, there were about 2,000 people living in the whole township – and it might have felt as though Emma’s family was half of it! The ‘puny’ log house held her father, Hugh, her mother, Esther Evelyn, and 15 children, including Emma. The children slept four to a bed and sometimes the snow on the roof would tumble through the rafters and give them an ‘extra blanket.’” (from Grandma Gatewood: Ohio’s Legendary Hiker by Kelly Boyer Sagert and Bette Lou Higgins; Eden Valley Enterprises; Copyright, 2015) Grandma Emma Gatewood was the first woman to solo thru-hike the Appalachian Trail in 1955 at the age of 67 after raising 11 children and surviving domestic abuse! Before she died in 1973 she had hiked the AT several times, completed hikes in Oregon, Vermont and Pennsylvania. She was a charter member of the Buckeye Trail Association. In 2010 Eden Valley and FilmAffects teamed up to tell her story. The film they produced together, Trail Magic: The Grandma Gatewood Story, finally came out in 2016 after much planning, research, and filming.