On Sunday , April 13 , the citizen of Chelsea , Michigan , put on a demonstration of community engagement . After study a local bookshop was set to relocate just one block out , the town came together to move the seller ’s entire stock-taking of 9100 titles , onebookat a time .
According to the Associated Press , Serendipity Booksowner Michelle Tuplin announced in January that her business concern was proceed from a downtown Main Street location to amuch larger storefrontjust around the quoin . Her dilemma : charter expensive movers to transport goodness a short space or seek to make do a cumbersome relocation on foot .
Fortunately , the town was eager to facilitate her with the latter . After Tuplin mentioned the move on social media , she have offers for help . “ It became so buzzy in town , ” Tuplin told the AP . “ So many multitude require to help . ”
Tuplinexpectedenough volunteers for one line . Instead , roughly 300 resident show up , enough to shape two lines on either side of the sidewalk that snaked from Serendipity ’s former location to its new one . One by one , the books were slip away by hand in amannersimilar to how locals in the 1800s used to pass water buckets to put out fires .
According to NBC News , one volunteerwas a 91 - year - old ; another brought their dog . When passersby ascertain the line , they connect in .
Tuplin made sure both end of the line were populated by volunteer who could keep caterpillar tread of the books so they remain in alphabetic order . Once they arrived at their raw destination , the volunteers stock the shelves , assign the volumes in their right plaza . The entire project took just two hours , whereas having movers package the books and depart the restocking to Tuplin might have consume days .
Tuplin , who has owned the shop since 2017 , be after to reopen Serendipity on Saturday , April 26 , which is Independent Bookstore Day .
“ To see the residential district come up out and , you roll in the hay , put all those words that they say , usually say , into action , it really just meant the world , ” Tuplin said , per NBC .
The project had an unintended consequence : It pretend as a recommend reading portal . say volunteer Donna Zak : “ It was just a gleeful experience . We were cash in one’s chips the books and noticing and remark to each other , ‘ Oh , have you read this one ? I really enjoyed this one ! ’ ”
