Building Community
- Joy Watkins
- Mar 4
- 2 min read
Indie Bookstores build community. But what does that look like, exactly?
Settle in for a read. We've got the best example, but first a little background...
At Plenty Downtown Bookshop – located in Cookeville, TN – they've structured their staff in such a way to have dedicated people to different areas. Jamie, for example, connects with authors for in-store events, while Ginger works with local schools. This past summer, the staff connected with The Elinor Ross CDF Freedom School, a Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School partner, coordinated by Tech’s College of Education, to host one of their field trips.
From Plenty staff member Ginger:
Our team at Plenty is amazing! Someone mentioned Freedom School to me so I Googled it and loved what they were doing. I read that they do field trips on Fridays so I immediately went to Jaime to ask if we could get a children's author. She reached out and within days she had an author (Sherry Roberts) ready to go. I then reached out to the Freedom School and the date we had scheduled for the author did not work with their schedule so Jaime Linder was on it and was able to get it scheduled for a day that worked for everyone. Then I went to Ashley to ask for ideas on what we could possibly offer the kiddos and she had Plenty of ideas (pun intended). We decided on the signed book for the kiddos to have to take home. Then Jaime was back at it, coordinating the author to come early and sign 35 books! Then to top it all off, Tracey came to the event to get a first hand account so she could write an article, sharing all the great things that happened that day.
During the event the kids asked amazing questions such as, "what kind of awards have your books received" and "how do you decide the names of the characters?" My favorite part was when Sherry told the kids they were receiving a signed copy of her book and one kiddo was so excited they exclaimed "you signed our books!?!?" Sherry is currently a college professor but taught middle and high school for many years so she knew how to engage with the kids. She was so patient and answered every question – and boy did they have questions! She told a story about how a guy ate the chocolates out of a box and filled it with lemon drops and gave it to her mom when she was younger. The story ended there but when question time came, a kiddo had to know – "Did the lemon drops work? Was your mom that guys Valentine?" They were listening intently and taking in everything she said. My last favorite part was the chant they did for Sherry when she finished: "Good job! Good job! (clap, clap) Good job! Good job! (clap, clap) g-o-o-d j-o-b (all spelled out) Good job! Good job! (clap, clap). I now use this chant for everything at my house."
Official news release by Plenty's Tracey Hackett:
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