Who is Your StoryWorks?
Your StoryWorks is a non-profit educational organization based in Sedona, Arizona, providing digital storytelling productions and workshops to individuals and groups.
Ron Melmon, president, has a 30-year career as an entrepreneur, creating highly successful businesses.
Maike Wessel, vice-president, has been working for 15 years as a journalist, author, editor and voice-over talent.
Ron and Maike graduated with a Certificate in Digital Storytelling at Yavapai College and have worked as facilitators in numerous digital storytelling workshops.
has been a storyteller since he was 10 and didn’t know it. When he wasn’t spinning ‘stories’ to his mom, he was doing magic shows out of his San Francisco garage, telling the audience stories about the tricks he was performing.
At the age of 13, Ron started a small model manufacturing company selling to local hobby shops. This experience gave him the confidence and ability to start his first official business, his own electronics manufacturing company.
Ten years later, ready for adventure, Ron moved to the ski resort of Sun Valley, Idaho, with his wife and daughter, and became the owner of a camera store www.fstopsunvalley.com. For 15 years, he enjoyed running this successful business teaching photography, skiing, backpacking, fishing and ghost town hunting. He also fulfilled another dream: he became a pilot and an airplane owner.
After selling the f-stop to his manager and good friend in a win-win buy-out, he moved with his family to Iowa to do research into consciousness.
An unusual opportunity in Finland presented itself. Ron flew to Europe to investigate and launched a very successful specialty contracting company in Houston, Texas, www.uretekusa.com.
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At the height of his success, Ron sold this business to his manager in another win-win transaction. He married the love of his life, Nancy Lee, and moved with her to Sedona, Arizona. Wanting to give back to the community, he became a certified mediator for the State of Arizona through the attorney general’s office. |
In Sedona, a new window opened up. Ron began studying digital media arts at Yavapai College and graduated with a Certificate in Digital Storytelling. Together with Maike Wessel, he established the educational non-profit corporation, Your StoryWorks, Inc.
Ron’s latest endeavor is his most fulfilling. As a facilitator and teacher of digital storytelling workshops, he enjoys watching the students discover and delight in their creativity. Helping students create, produce and bring to life their stories is Ron’s greatest joy. His dream is to make digital storytelling accessible to everyone across the country and throughout the world.
I grew up in Bavaria in a family that nourished my immense curiosity and hunger to learn and explore. Without television in the house, I spent a big part of my childhood reading and making music. At the age of 14, I got my first camera and my passion for photography has grown since.
While completing my university studies with a masters in political science, I was trained as a journalist and worked as a news editor at a statewide radio station. There, I discovered my voice and became a voice-over talent, specializing in narration and poetry. With translating, editing and writing, I built a successful career revolving around the word.
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A relationship, combined with my sense for adventure, brought me in 2001 to Sedona, Arizona. |
This new art form is perfect for me, combining my skills in narrating, writing and interviewing, with my love for design and photography. But most importantly, I am impressed by the therapeutic power of creating a digital story. As a teacher, facilitator and producer, I feel fortunate to have found a way to contribute to others on their journey of self-expression, healing and connecting.