Sandra Stempel — “Writing helps you discover yourself”

Sandra Stempel was raised, one of six children, by a father, Rudolph Valentino Stempel, who taught her the value of perseverance, and by a mother, Sheila Catherine Stempel, who flew solo as a young woman and wrote a poem for every one of her children’s birthdays. Words are important to Stempel. She writes a weekly Enterprise column for the Berne Library, under her married name, Sandra Kisselback, that often includes her own poetry. In her column, she also tells the stories of local people, recently of those who are giving TEDx talks for the library. Stempel created a Word of the Month Club that has gotten readers to stretch their vocabulary. A longtime member of the Berne Historical Society, Stempel will soon be the town historian. “Everybody out there has a story and they should be told,” she says. She also wants to inspire more interest in the Berne Historical Museum, which attracted 200 visitors on its opening day on Nov. 11, 1970. A series of rooms upstairs in Town Hall, which was once a hotel, are outfitted with donated artifacts from different eras. The Children’s Room, for example, has a bicycle with wooden wheels and a magic lantern. Stempel encourages others to read — she and her sister are on a quest to each read 100 books this year — and to write. “Writing helps you discover yourself,” she says.

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