Our Town Books holding events to celebrate
By Kyla Hurt
Our Town Books is celebrating Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday, April 27. From 10 a.m.-7 p.m. that day, the bookstore at 64 E. Central Park Plaza will have an array of happenings for the bibliophile or not.
Our Town Books owner Khristina Helmich says of the national event, “It’s meant really as something fun for indie bookstores … to celebrate them. … We’ve had a lot of fun since August, so we wanted to make a big thing out of it.”
Organized by the American Booksellers Association, this is the 11th annual Independent Bookstore Day. It is described by bookweb.org as a “national one-day party held the last Saturday in April [that] celebrates independent bookstores across the country online and in-store.”
Helmich says to check out her “Independent Bookstore Day Events!” event though the Our Town Books Facebook page. She notes on the event page, “Independent Bookstore Day (Indie Bookstore Day) was established in 2013 to promote, celebrate, and highlight the value of the Independent bookstore community. The day has been observed on the last Saturday of April every year since 2013. This year there are over 900 stores participating across the country.”
Our Town Books will be celebrating with a sidewalk sale including their well-known “Fill-a-Bag SALE,” which is where people bring a reusable tote to fill with books from the sidewalk for only $10. The sidewalk sale includes all genres of gently-used books. Helmich claims with a smile, “We’re getting books out from the vault.”
There will also be sales inside the store on books and merchandise.
Helmich adds, “We’re hoping to have in-store bingo game for kids. … We’re also going to have raffles … so for every $10 that you spend, you get a raffle ticket.” Raffle prizes include gift cards, special books, a kids’ gift basket, book bundles and store memberships. The raffle drawings will take place at the end of the day and patrons do not need to be present to win.
Our Town Books will commemorate Independent Bookstore Day with guest authors. “We’ll have eight authors throughout the day in two-hour time slots starting at 10 o’clock, shares Helmich. The authors are all local, so either reside in this area or are from the area originally, she notes. Each author will be selling and signing their respective books.
The author meet and greets will feature Sarah Angelton, Kristina M. Barbee, Don Dennis, John Franz, Jade Rockwood, Robert Seufert, Glennis Tippy and zem.
“We’re really excited because this is our first Indie Bookstore Day since we just bought the store in August, so I really wanted to have local authors there because I feel like the day is just as much for them as it is for us. And the last time we had our sidewalk sale it was a lot of fun, and we met a lot of people that used to come to the store with previous owners … and they came from out of town, so that’s always fun,” shares Helmich.
Khristina and Alex Helmich have been the owners of Our Town Books since August 2023 … and it seems like the store was meant to be theirs. Khristina Helmich states, “A friend of mine — who actually introduced me to the store years ago — sent me the Facebook post about the store being for sale. I was instantly interested because Alex and I had joked about owning a bookstore and wanting to have a cute, little bookstore almost our entire marriage. It just never came up because he’s a pilot and I was a graphic designer. … As soon as I received the post, we started talking seriously about it because I just had a feeling almost like it was meant to be … it’s weird, but … I met with Jessica [Gale, previous owner] a few days later. … I had actually just lost my job in the winter … so I was actually looking for new employment.”
That was it. The Helmichs figured it out and are now have their own “cute, little bookstore.”
Khristina Helmich finishes, “I love it. It’s been so fun. It has already taught me a lot. I also really enjoy meeting the customers and the people who come in. … We absolutely love it and we have a lot of ideas and goals for this year and future years. This is absolutely home.”
Our Town Books is open Tuesday-Thursday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. and Sunday from noon-4 p.m.
On top of the upcoming Independent Bookstore Day celebration, Our Town Books holds “Storytime” on Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. Storytime includes a story and coloring, and is free of charge. Helmich says they plan to have local author signings starting in May and throughout the summer as well.
Find out more about Our Town Books via their Facebook page and ourtownbooks.co.
