REGENERATION EXPANDS FERNDALE AREA DISTRICT LIBRARY ..............................................150

DESPITE A TOUGH YEAR DURING THE PANDEMIC, they are expanding the size of their store with the addition of a new space called The Annex, and looking forward to the future. Williams and Duffey expressed deep gratitude that their store managed to survive the difficult circumstances brought about by COVID-19. “We are appreciative that most of our customers feel safe to shop and sell clothing with us during such an uneasy time,” Duffey said. The duo’s history as business owners goes back to 2007, when a desire for new careers led them to shift gears and open Regeneration. “We were both in a stagnant place, job-wise and life-wise; craved a change and wanted a challenge,” Williams said. “We both adored vintage clothing and had been avid thrift store shoppers, so it made sense to try our hand at a business we loved.” Regeneration had expanded to two stores when a second store opened in Clawson in 2011. But the Clawson store did not survive the pandemic, allowing Williams and Duffey to focus on growing their main location in Pleasant Ridge. “Deciding to close our Clawson store wasn’t difficult, as we knew that managing both stores, especially amid a pandemic, would be too much to handle financially and emotionally,” Duffey said. “Last Summer, we rented the space next door to our main location to help manage the overflow of inventory. “Eventually we will break down the main wall and refigure our dressing rooms. But in the meantime, The Annex houses the bulk of our accessories for men and women,” said Williams. “While the front room has a cozy boutique feel, the Annex is an intimate space that is a revolving/evolving room dedicated to local artists and sustainable products.”

LIKE MOST SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS, Williams and Duffey got creative during the pandemic and went outside of their normal methods of engaging customers, and much of their efforts to stay connected to customers focused on social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram. “We’ve used Instagram the past few years to highlight exceptional items we buy for the store, but now we’re using Instagram to make connections. Just before we reopened in May 2020, we invited our staff to share Instagram videos of what they’d been up to during quarantine. We’ve since transitioned into hosting a weekly live sale on Instagram at 2:00 P.M. on Saturdays. It’s important to share highlights of our inventory with folks that Melanie Williams and Nicole Duffey, lifelong best friends, aren’t one hundred percent comfortable shopping during the pandemic. We cultivated a big family of customers prior to the pandemic shutdown, and our activity on Facebook and Instagram helped us stay in touch with people and connect to other businesses.” One trend the two women have noticed is that career-oriented items are celebrating 14 years in aren’t selling as much as they once did. Working from home has changed career-wear culture. They said the great thing about resale isbusiness as co-owners of that you don’t have to spend a lot to wear fashionable clothing, and Regeneration, a resale clothing shopping secondhand is beneficial for one’s budget, as well as the environment. store at 23700 Woodward Ave. “When we do shift back to school full-time, being social, or heading in Pleasant Ridge, just blocks back to the workplace, our store will be a fantastic option for families who don’t want to spend full price on apparel,” Williams said. “Also, away from Ferndale and I-696. having a significant amount of down time has inspired folks to clean out their closets and purge unneeded things. This is beneficial to the world of resale, because we are seeing an influx of amazing items that people are casting off in exchange for cash or store credit.” n

R e g e n e r a t i o n E x p a n d s !

Our commitment to the Library’s mission never wavered. Even during a pandemic, we did our best to continue connecting our community to culturally enriching materials and resources that inform, entertain and empower – whether physical items conveyed through contactless curbside pick-ups, interactive programming for all ages hosted via Zoom, or utilizing online sign-up forms for new Library cards and introducing a wider portion of our patrons to the vast array of online resources and digital content. We worked to keep you connected to free content that invariably offered enlightenment or escapism.

REOPENING PLANS

We are back open, seven days a week, with our regular service hours fully restored. We will continue to provide you with access to all of our resources in the year ahead, including newly added apps like Freegal Music (for streaming/downloading MP3s from thousands of major labels). And we also have new events and programs that recently started meeting virtually, like our new adult Writers Group and the forthcoming Film Club – the former is open to writers of all genres and skill levels and the latter will focus on and discuss films that were adapted from popular novels.

WEBSITE

The Ferndale Area District Library (FADL) will be launching a new web site in September at www.fadl.org. This new web site will allow for

We never felt that “closed” was an accurate word to easier, more intuitive access to our online catalog, a list of staff reading recommendations, and a dynamic calendar of upcoming events. You can also link to our online resources from this new URL. And don’t worry if you forget and still type in our old address; you’ll be automatidescribe the Library’s status cally redirected. during quarantine. Frankly, our BIBLIOBOARD

Biblioboard is a new online resource where we archive multimestaff never stopped, nor did a dia content to a new Community Collection, featuring past proconsiderable majority of our core grams and events, library history, Ferndale history, podcast mini-series, and so much more. With Biblioboard, not only can you services – albeit said services were take a digital stroll through recent library history with our unique collection, but it’s also an ebook lending platform. Ferndale residents inevitably delivered from a safe have instant access to ebooks by local/indie authors: no holds, no waiting – everything on here is simultaneous use. The most recent distance, if not virtually. upload to our collection unveils digitized items, photos, and documents that were stored in both of our time capsules. But that’s not all. With Biblioboard, we’re also able to provide patrons, particularly our local authors, a service allowing them to design their own eBooks! Writers can also submit their own previously written titles for consideration to be included in the Biblioboard Library’s eBook collection. COMING UP: We have art on display by Andromeda Schmidt and Suzanne Allen. Andromeda Schmidt is a local graphic designer, sculptress, illustrator and teacher who has shown works in Detroit, Philadelphia, Richmond, and New York. Her works are on display in our Corridor Gallery this month! And Ferndale’s own Suzanne Allen is a former college English teacher turned visual artist. Her current artwork consists mainly of acrylic, encaustic, and water media paintings, collographs, cyanotypes, assemblages, and monoprints. Works will be on display through early October. At the time of this posting, we have tentative plans to host an in-person synthesizer expo with local musicians for a limited audience that will be registered beforehand, with an encouragement to mask up. More info regarding this, and any upcoming events – virtual or in-person, will be posted to our social media pages. Parents of toddlers, ages 1-4, can sign up for virtual storytimes in September by emailing Youth Services Librarians: everett@ferndalepubliclibrary.org or jasmine@ferndalepubliclibrary.org These virtual storytimes are hosted via Zoom, at 10:30 A.M. on the first three Wednesdays of September. We also have an exciting roster of guests coming to our podcast, including local authors like Stephen Mack Jones and poet Cal Freeman, along with recognizable names from around the country and world, such as Paula Hawkins, Lauren Groff, and Megan Abbott! Our show, , is streaming on Spotify, iTunes,

by Jeff Milo FADL Media/Marketing

and Stitcher. n

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