An unexpected act of kindness at McNally Robinson Booksellers over the weekend had a teacher — and staff — at the store “all in tears.” 

“Stefanie, the teacher, had been upstairs in our children’s department, and she had reached her budget and still had a big stack of books that she had brought down to one of our cashiers Saturday morning,” recounts general manager Angela Torgerson.

 

After sorting through the stack of books and putting some titles aside for next time, the customer one till over “simply reached into her purse, pulled some money out, put it down and said ‘well,the rest are on me’ and walked out.” 

“We gasped,” says Torgerson. “We were all in tears at the generosity.” 

Nothing to this extent has been done at McNally before, according to Torgerson. “It’s all we can talk about.” The mystery benefactor is know to the staff, and they are currently looking at different ways to thank them for their generosity. 

 

“It was one of the nicest moments we’ve ever had here,” says Torgerson. 

McNally is often a go-to spot for educators looking to add to their libraries. “It really means a lot to us when we see teachers in the store,” says Torgerson. “Shopping for their classroom, putting a lot of thought and effort into what books they’re putting into their students’ hands.” 

Often, the number of books is limited by school allocated budgets though, in this instance, a random act of kindness by a benefactor has the entire wish-list added to the library. 

“It’s been a really rough couple of years and a disheartening couple of weeks in the larger world,” says Torgerson. “For my staff to be able to see not only what we mean to our customers but what our customers mean to us and each other, it really, really lifted our spirits.”