116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Pen and paper: Keeping the written word alive
7 stationery stores participating in first Iowa Paper Trail
You might think a paper trail is like a trail of confetti showing you the way out of a forest.
Think again.
The Iowa Paper Trail is a new event developed by seven stationery and letterpress store owners to show you the way to their small businesses.
The Paper Trail — complete with a “passport” — runs through Sept. 30. It started the last weekend in July in conjunction with the annual Stationery Store Day.
Three Eastern Iowa shop owners spearheaded the event: Danielle Chargo of Iron Leaf Press in Mount Vernon; Niki Neems of RSVP in Iowa City; and Nikki Kettelkamp, Scribe Stationer in Cedar Rapids.
Chargo did the event legwork, creating the passports and stickers at the letterpress and stationery business she opened in 2011.
“I’ve had several people picking up the free passports,” said Chargo, who has a graphic design degree and whose letterpress creates stock for stores around the United States and internationally. “If they go to all seven stores throughout Iowa, they are eligible for a prize drawing.
“We started this partly because, this time of year, it’s a little slower, but it’s also back-to-school time, and some parents like to purchase pens, pencils and decorative, bound notebooks,” Chargo said. "Once it’s October, there’s more holiday gift-giving.”
Chargo said it’s fun to introduce customers to the other stores, noting some customers have discovered her store by picking up a passport at another store.
Niki Neems, owner of RSVP in Iowa City, said the Paper Trail concept is mainly about getting people together.
“In the initial two weeks of the event, we had our first customer bring in a completed passport after visiting all seven stores,” Neems said. “One person commented that each store has a different personality, much like their owners.”
Neems said two college students “who love stationery” told her they planned to visit all the Paper Trail stores. Another customer from Brooklyn, N.Y., told Neems she was happy to find RSVP since so few stationery stores exist these days.
“Most of my business is about community building since so much in our world separates us,” Neems said, adding she’d done a fundraiser for the Emma Goldman Clinic in Iowa CIty on Stationery Store Day.
“We are niche stores so there are not many like us,” she said. “We all share a love of written correspondence and activities that slow you down as opposed to our fast-paced world of immediacy.
”When everything is just a click away, we enjoy the slowness of handwriting and waiting for the mail versus digital typing all the time.”
Scribe Stationer, located in a historic firehouse in the NewBo District in Cedar Rapids, will be opening a smaller outpost next to its sister store, Scout of Marion, in this fall or in the spring, owner Nikki Kettelkamp said.
“We all said let’s give the Iowa Paper Trail a shot to promote small and women-owned businesses, and people who love putting pen to paper,” Kettelkamp said. “Customers who pick up the passports are excited to discover the seven stores on the trail all working together.
“Other regions in the country have done similar events,” Kettelkamp added. “Our store owners are so awesome to do this collaboration!”
Iowa Paper Trail
Participating stores are:
Iron Leaf Press, 113 First St. East, Mount Vernon
RSVP, 140 N. Linn St., Iowa City
Scribe Stationer, 1111 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids
Pretty Good Co., 226 Main St., Cedar Falls
The Pella Paperie, 836 Main St., Pella
Ephemera, 505 E. Locust St., Des Moines
Warm Wishes, 200 E. State St., Jefferson
Danielle Chargo stands in her Iron Leaf Press retail store in Mount Vernon. (Submitted)
The “passport” for the Iowa Paper Trail (Submitted)
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