Stories contain the wisdom of the world, teaching cultural values. Story builds community, celebrates cultural diversity, and preserves cultural identity. Where truth has been suppressed, story is an instrument of epiphany. Storytelling builds literacy skills, and develops metaphorical understanding. A storytelling center in Canada had been a cultural institution for 23 years and had cultivated the art and craft of storytelling in the members of its storytelling guild. When the center faced permanent closure, members were devastated. The theoretical underpinnings for this research study were narrative theory, place theory, and knowledge communities. The purpose of this study was to explore member perceptions of story, storytelling, and leadership. A phenomenological study was conducted to investigate the moment of this lived experience. Individual interviews with 9 participants and 2 focus groups of 3 participants each were conducted with members of the storytellers' guild. Audio recorded focus groups and individual interviews provided verbatim transcripts. Data analysis was inductive to discover categories and themes. Key findings indicated three dominant themes emerged: home, vision, and story. Findings also indicated that story strengthens both content retention and language acquisition. For the purposes of this paper, findings about story will be discussed.