The license plates showed people came from all over: Iowa, Indiana, Arkansas, Louisiana, South Carolina, California and New York. And that just gets the list started. Hundreds of people stepped up this weekend to help Susan Littlejohn rebuild her animal rescue shelter that was hit by two tornadoes at once in a devastating April 4th storm. The project gained national attention and volunteers came from across to country to help. They stayed in area hotels, dined at regional restaurants and shopped at many of the local stores. Did merchants see much of a boost?

By just Thursday afternoon, 140 communities were represented at the Build An Ark Animal Rescue shelter in East Ellijay and according to Jeff Parness, the founder of the New York Says Thank You Foundation, there were roughly about 1000 volunteers at the project’s kick-off dinner Thursday night. Parness estimated roughly 2500 volunteers would visit the site before work wrapped up Sunday.

Businesses as far away as Jasper saw a boost in sales. Jill Patton, who works at The Carriage House Coffee Shop in downtown Jasper, said she has seen more customers than usual come in for the last two weeks. Patton surmised the customers are from out of town because she said she knows most of the regulars. In Ellijay, Ruby Tuesday Restaurant manager Daniel Freeman said that he too has seen the lunch crowd grow in the last two weeks, about the time volunteers started to arrive. Freeman noted that many customers were wearing volunteer shirts. Operator of the Ellijay Chick- fil-A Wayne Grier, who has donated chicken biscuits to the project, said that he also has seen an increase in business in the past few days. Best Western Motel in Ellijay only had three vacancies as of Friday, where half of the lodgers are scheduled to check out on Sunday. The Stratford Inn, near town, was also filling up with lodgers.

Additionally, with all this activity in Ellljay and the surrounding areas, business owners hope the national coverage that is being generated by the event will attract tourists to visit the area, long after the barn-raising is complete.