A Toronto writer is about to undertake one of the most personal and physically demanding tributes the city has seen in some time. From April 7 to 16, Marci Stepak will walk more than 300 kilometres to all 100 branches of the Toronto Public Library over 10 consecutive days, honouring the memory of her late mother and raising funds for the TPL Foundation.

The walk lands on the very day of the first anniversary of her mother's death. A lifelong Torontonian who held a TPL card for more than 50 years, Stepak's mother believed deeply that curiosity should cost nothing, and knowledge should belong to everyone. A few days before she died, in the same conversation where funeral plans were discussed, she reminded Marci to return her library books "so other people can enjoy them too." That detail says everything about who she was.