LaPietra celebrated Bellairs' birthday each January with the usual party atmosphere: cake, games, and reminiscences. "One year, two older gentlemen got into an argument over whether John Bellairs was the best or worst busboy Schuler's restaurant ever had. Another year the party was based on The Eyes of the Killer Robot, featuring a gentleman from the robotics department of a local college, with assistants, and two robots - one programmed to throw a ball, the other to 'serve' chocolate chip cookies."

With no new book going into 1989, LaPietra decided to invent a walking tour of Marshall, similar to the city's already famous annual Historic Home Tour. The idea was an immediate hit. With guidance from both Marshall Historian Richard Carver and correspondence from Bellairs himself, LaPietra's carefully researched list struck a chord with local residents who volunteered to portray the popular characters at significant points throughout the tour.

In 1990 the tour won the Lucile Micheels Pannell Award, given by the Women's National Book Association to honor a creative program that brings children and books together.

In later years, area schools conducted the tours in mid-May during Michigan Week for local and visiting elementary-aged children, and at other times the tour was self-guided with maps available at both the Chamber of Commerce office and kids' place. These maps were necessary, LaPietra explains, as Bellairs took a lot of poetic license with the geography in his fictional New Zebedee.

"John’s first three books (The House with a Clock in its Walls; The Figure in the Shadows; and The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring) really capture the Marshall spirit and are easily recognized by Marshallites. People come or write to Marshall because of John's books and the tour allows everyone the chance to enjoy the city and stretch our imaginations, much as John's was inspired by his surroundings as a child."

After Ann's death in 2007 the “organized” walk was all but disbanded, though the locations still exist and fans may still want to visit them. Because of that, the Walk is still alive and well on the Bellairsia site in her honor, updated with more historical information and expanded to include other landmarks such as the Honolulu House.