Everyone loves a good story, and on Saturday, members of StoryWorks Storytelling Guild in Murrysville will be telling some of their best in "Ten Years of Tales" at Newlonsburg Presbyterian Church.

The guild's 10th annual Tellabration will feature the talent of longtime members and newcomers, each with a different style and different tale to tell. The two-hour event for adults and older children will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will be free.

Tellabration is promoted by the National Storytelling Network and is scheduled annually for the weekend before Thanksgiving. This year, there will be about 300 events worldwide.

StoryWorks was founded 10 years ago when Judy Seeley, of Murrysville, went to a children's program at Murrysville Community Library and was the only adult sitting on a little chair.

Mike Dibert, of Delmont, and Kate Burleigh, of Murrysville, were telling the stories, and when the program ended, Ms. Seeley asked them and Carol Siesken, the library's director of youth services, whether there was a guild in the area.

There wasn't, but the four of them made it happen.

Ms. Seeley, who had belonged to a storytelling group in Georgia, is now coordinator for StoryWorks. She and six other storytellers will be featured on Saturday, each telling a favorite.

The library sponsors the guild that meets there every month. There is a core of 10 members who like to tell stories and four or five who listen while the others practice and get feedback.

"I love telling stories, and looking out into the audience and seeing that they're really getting it," Ms. Seeley said. "So it's very rewarding for me to coordinate this group and watch new storytellers come in and develop their talent."

The guild has invited celebrities for alternate Tellabrations -- Temujin The Storyteller and Alan Irvine, both of Pittsburgh, and Greg Zaborowski, a teller and musician from Johnstown. One year, the guild brought in Robin Moore, a storyteller and author from near Philadelphia, who wrote the "Bread Sisters of Stinking Creek" trilogy.

"We are all storytellers," Mr. Dibert said. "We all grew up listening to our parents and grandparents, and we tell stories every day about what happened in our lives."

Mr. Dibert grew up in Derry Borough, performed with community theater, studied communications media at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and earned a teaching certificate at Seton Hill University in Greensburg.

After graduation, he and a friend created a traveling show of stories and songs about influential Americans, and performed for two years at libraries and schools.

Mr. Dibert has been teaching in the Franklin Regional School District for 17 years and currently teaches second grade at Heritage Elementary. He tells his students stories "just for fun."

He will reprise his version of the Armenian folk tale, "Nazaar The Brave," which he told eight years ago.

Ms. Seeley is retelling Richard Kennedy's "Come Again in the Spring," a story about an old man who is visited by Death and manages to negotiate a delay.

Barbara Guger, of Monroeville, is the resident storyteller at Rainbow Connection, an early childhood development center in Murrysville. Her story will be "Gizzie," a family saga that she told in 2006 about a relative who returned to Austria as a 4-year-old.

"I have a large collection of stories that I tell to children, and stories that I tell to adults, and ones that I can tell to both, depending on the point of view," she said

Marva Seymour, of Murrysville, likes to tell stories about growing up on a farm in Colorado. On Saturday, she will retell the story about going with her mother to a train depot to give free food to soldiers going to World War II.

"It's kind of a touching story and it made a great impression on me," she said.

Marsha Wong, of Murrysville, has been telling stories her whole life.

"I used to put on little performances for the kids in the neighborhood and charge a nickel," she said.

For Tellabration, she is retelling "Had I Known," a touching story about a Holocaust survivor taken from the book "Small Miracles."

"It's a very poignant story and people are usually crying," she said.

Joanna Demarest, of Murrysville, has been telling stories for 20 years and recently turned professional with performances at concerts, festivals, Scouting events and private parties. Because she is a newcomer to the group, she is retelling a story once told by Ms. Burleigh, who has since moved from the area.

"It's called 'The Two Old Women's Bet,' and since it's a Kentucky folk tale, I get to pull out my natural accent," she said. "It's about two women who bet on who can make the biggest fool out of their husbands, and it's absolutely hilarious."

Judy Kane, of Apollo, has been telling stories for about 40 years, but this will be her first Tellabration. Her story is a version of "The Intelligent Lightbulbs," an uplifting and humorous tale by Pete Seeger, legendary folk musician and activist.

Storytellers need permission to tell something that's not in the public domain, and when Ms. Kane asked the publishers, Mr. Seeger, 90, called her.

"We talked for an hour and it was just wonderful," she said.

Newlonsburg Presbyterian Church is at 4600 Old William Penn Highway. For more information, call 724-327-4833.

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.