Joe Ferguson Storyteller

Get to Know Deborah Ferguson: Youth club director filling center ...

Deborah Ferguson was born in Chicago where she graduated from Richard T. Crane High School. It was while she was attending the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign that she met her future husband, Joseph, who was on active duty with the military. With his military career and later his jobs in the air freight industry, the Fergusons moved around the country, including stops in Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Washington, D.C. After going to work for FedEx in Memphis where they stayed 18 years, Joseph Ferguson was transferred to Mobile in 1998 and the family moved to Baldwin County a year later.

"We had always vacationed here," Deborah Ferguson recalled, "and after moving here we knew this is where we wanted to stay."

While raising her family of two daughters, Ferguson continued to pursue her degree, studying in four countries including Senegal and Kenya where she traveled on grants from the National Endowment for the Arts to further her career as a professional storyteller. After the move to Mobile, she completed her undergraduate degree in English, anthropology and education at the University of South Alabama. She went on to earn her master’s in English and creative writing at USA and she continues to serve as adjunct faculty in the USA English Department.

Storytelling has always been a part of Ferguson’s life. For 10 years she traveled almost every week telling stories to children and young adults, and she continues as a collaborating artist with the Alabama State Council on the Arts. As part of that commitment, she travels to rural areas and trains local teachers in methods to incorporate the arts into the general curriculum. She was also a founding artist in the Mississippi Whole Schools Initiative, a statewide program that uses the arts to enhance core curriculum in public schools.

Regaining her strength after a year-long battle with a life-threatening illness, Ferguson accepted her current job as director of the Snook Youth Club in February. Formerly the Foley Boys and Girls Club, the Youth Club has 26 students enrolled in its after-school program and expects to have sixty 7- through 15-year-olds in its summer program.

"Just like my life," Ferguson said, "I want to fill this place with as many activities as I possibly can." In addition to tutoring and helping with homework, the Youth Club now has performing arts and physical education programs.

Ferguson has plans for spring break week at the Youth Club, including a Bike-A-Thon from the clubhouse to Foley Kids Park that will have a police escort "just like a Mardi Gras parade," Ferguson said. On Friday of that week, club members will celebrate National Tie-Dye Day by making colorful T-shirts. "My dream for these children is that they will come to see themselves as global citizens who see themselves as responsible for each other as well as themselves. I want each child to learn to practice peace and to move the whole world toward that goal," the director said.

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