Our founder, Gary Odom established Bedford Falls Toy Shop in 1987, specializing in quality toys, books, and manipulatives. Almost from the beginning, customers requested high-quality books for their children’s reading pleasure, and Southeastern Educational Toy and Book Distributors was established the following year. Subsequently, Bedford Falls Book Fairs was established in 1990 after we began providing book fairs for independent schools in surrounding communities. We could have never imagined the journey on which we were about to embark.

Aligning with our values to provide each child with high-quality books, the opportunity to play a critical role in literacy events thrilled us. Bedford Falls began providing self-select literacy events in 1990. Our first event of this kind was for Smart Start, an early childhood program funded by the State of North Carolina. We delivered a well-stocked pop-up store in a school cafeteria setting for a weekend event with local childcare centers in the Charlotte /Mecklenburg Region. Through the Smart Start voucher program, over 300 childcare centers participated, purchasing over $1,000,000 in books and manipulatives for their onsite libraries. From these beginnings, we have grown our offerings to include school events and book fairs from Georgia to Baltimore, literary logistics, and book deliveries to a wide variety of not-for-profit organizations and school districts.