VOA · What's Trending Today?
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What's Trending Today? covers viral stories and social media moments in short, punchy reports. The episodes are brief and topical — perfect for a quick daily dictation session.
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01This is what's trending today.
02Recently, the operators of a bookstore in Southampton, England, made an unusual appeal to people in the community.
03They sought help moving books and other things to the store's new location a short distance down the street.
04Community-based October Books put up announcements around the neighborhood and on the Internet.
05They asked, Can you lend a hand?
06The bookstore made clear the work would be volunteer and that all kinds of people were needed.
07It would be a lot of work, even if the store was relocating only about 150 meters down the street.
08Part of the work required serious lifting and boxing things.
09This is not a family event.
10We need people happy to do heavy lifting, said an announcement posted last Sunday on Facebook.
11Naturally, the store had to move books.
12Lots and lots of books.
13The announcement said the move would be happening throughout the week.
14But community members did not wait long to start coming forward to offer their help.
15A report in the Southern Daily Echo newspaper said at least 250 volunteers showed up last Sunday ready to work.
16With that number of people, the organizers decided to change their method for moving books from the old store to the new one.
17Instead of having people carry them, volunteers formed a human chain to pass the books from person to person.
18They lined up between the two locations along Portswood Road.
19Claire Diaper works at October Books.
20She told the Southern Daily Echo she was caught by surprise at the huge amount of interest.
21It was just amazing.
22We started with 10 people having to run between shops and ended up with 250 people passing books, Diaper said.
23She added that she got quite emotional and found the level of community support heartening.
24Jannie Frank was part of the human chain.
25She also told the newspaper it was amazing to see the power of so many local people in action.
26October Books have done really well.
27I'm in awe, she said.
28Local news reports said the volunteers passed about 2,000 books from hand to hand on October 28th alone.
29About 18,000 more were to be moved the rest of the week.
30The grand opening of the new store is set for Saturday, November 3rd.
31October Books decided to move from its old location because of rising costs.
32The operators said they did not have enough money to pay for continued use of the building.
33So, they launched a campaign to raise money to buy a nearby old bank building as the store's new home.
34The Guardian newspaper reports that October Books was founded in 1977 as a small, radical bookshop cooperative named after Russia's October Revolution.
35But the business kept expanding as it grew over the years.
36And that's what's trending today.
37I'm Brian Lynn.
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