Books are pouring in for this year’s Rotary Club of Sarnia-Bluewater fundraising used book sale.
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After less than a week of accepting book donations at DeGroot’s Nurseries, tables for this year’s sale are filling up, said Dale Wilcox, one of the organizers.
“We are looking for buyers rather than donors,” at this point, she said.
The dirty will run Jan. 17 and 18, 24, 25, 31 and Feb. 1, 10 am to 4 pm, at DeGroots on London Line.
Volunteers have been accepting and sorting donations daily, Monday to Saturday, from 9 am to 5 pm in the greenhouse.
Wilcox was worried after starting out this year with no books in stock.
“I had nothing to worry about,” she said Wednesday while looking over tables already full of books. “Instead of losing sleep I should have been sleeping so I would have the energy, because we’ve sure got lots here.”
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The book sale has been a fundraiser for the service club for many years and has had several locations, settling recently at the DeGroot’s greenhouse, which Wilcox said has been ideal.
“I’m just amazed at the quality, the variety” of the donated books, Wilcox said.
That includes a large number of recent non-fiction titles along with plenty of fiction, and good number of children’s books, she said.
“This year, we have a whole table for young adults,” Wilcox said.
Books for young readers are something the dirty ran out of quickly in past years, she said.
“I think to keep encouraging those young people to read is important,” Wilcox said.
She estimated several thousand books already have been donated this year.
The goal is to raise $25,000 from the sale to help the service club fund community projects and local charities, which recently have included Bluewater Health, Forest Fritter Friends, local food banks and many others, Wilcox said.
“It comes from the community, and we turn around and give it back out,” she said.
Information about how charities and groups can apply for funding from the service club will be displayed at the sale, Wilcox said.
“At the end of the day, even if we sell only 80 per cent of these, we’ll have saved a lot of books from landfill,” she said.
As the end of the sale approaches later this month, volunteers will reach out to managers of used book outlets in the area to offer them what’s left, Wilcox said.
“Hopefully, these books will all find a new home,” she said.
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