Lines were long and the parking lot nearly full as the sale opened in a corner of the greenhouse at DeGroot’s Nurseries on London Line.
A snow squall warning for the Sarnia area Friday morning didn’t appear to scare shoppers away from opening day of the Rotary Club of Sarnia Bluewaterland used book sale.
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Lines were long and the parking lot nearly full as the sale opened in a corner of the greenhouse at DeGroot’s Nurseries on London Line.
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“It’s a good problem,” Dale Wilcox, one of the organizers of the service club fundraiser that has been a tradition for about a dozen years.
“I didn’t expect this with the weather,” she said.
The fundraiser where the club collects donations of used books to be sold over several days took a year off in 2023 after its previous location at Lambton Mall was no longer available.
DeGroot’s offered space in his greenhouse this year and the club began accepting donations of books in early January. So many came in that the stacks were growing beyond the sale’s designated space and Wilcox said they eventually had to halt donations.
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“There just wasn’t room,” she said.
“The community has been exceptionally good,” Wilcox said. “There are so many great books to choose from.”
“I’m sure we have 10,000,” she said about the books on hand when the sale began Friday morning, plus more waiting for space on the tables to open up.
The sale continues Saturday, as well as Jan. 26 and 27, and Feb. 9 and 10, 10 am to 4 pm each day.
This year’s fundraiser has a special attraction.
Volunteers putting in long days sorting books for the sale discovered someone donated a full 58-book set from the Hardy Boys series in good condition.
“The set is worth, if you check out eBay and Amazon, above $350,” Wilcox said.
Organizers decided to keep the set together and are accepting sealed bids for it.
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Wilcox said they hope this year’s sale raises $20,000 to give back to the community.
A list of projects and agencies the service club has supported over the last two years was posted at the checkout table.
“We’re trying hard to make sure we’re doing our part in the community,” Wilcox said.
When the sale ends, the club plans to distribute as many of the leftover books as it can because it currently doesn’t have a spot to store them.
Local residents who have a free “little library” will be able to look through leftovers and take what they can use. Local social service agencies and retirement facilities will be able to do the same and books will also go to local secondhand stores supporting charities, Wilcox said.
The aim is to save as many books as possible from ending up in landfill, she said.
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