Book Brigade: Community Kindness Moves Thousands of Books to New Store
Around 280 volunteers formed a human chain to relocate the books.
When Ottawa bookstore The Spaniel's Tale decided to move to a larger space a block away, co-owner Cole Davidson said they had no plans to host a 'book brigade.' He said that "the idea actually came from our customers, who brought us many, many articles of different bookstores over the years that have done it." The premise is simple: volunteers form a human chain, and then pass the books down, one-by-one, until they reach their new location.
The line was about 90 metres long and stretched from the store's old location to its new one. "It's really humbling, it's really such an honour," Davidson said. "The community has always been really supportive of us and to see them show up for us today really means a lot." The human chain managed to shift 7,400 books in about two and a half hours.
One big benefit of the book brigade, Davidson said, was that all the books arrived at their new shelves in alphabetical order. With the new store more than twice the size of their old location, Davidson said The Spaniel's Tale will be able to host more events - like book signings and "candlelight" shopping nights - and offer more gift-type items for sale.
Linda Brown, a frequent customer of The Spaniel's Tale, called the brigade "spectacular." Adding: "I just think that reading is a great way to learn new things. It gets us maybe away from our screens a little bit, and it just makes us imagine all kinds of different worlds."
