60,000 items up for grabs at The Big Book Sale
Popular three-day event is labour of love for dozens of volunteers who plan, staff
Regina’s annual The Big Book Sale put on by the Seniors’ University Group is a book-lover’s paradise
And for many of the event’s volunteers and visitors, the jawdropping number of books and community of other book enthusiasts keeps them coming back year after year.
With an estimated 60,000 items, organizing The Big Book Sale is no easy task. Thousands of hours are put in by about 100 volunteers between July, when the call for donations goes out, and the end of August, when the sale is held.
Walking into the Tartan Curling Club while setup is underway is like walking into a beehive. Volunteers come and go, moving among row upon row of tables with boxes of books in tow.
“The volunteers are anxious to get started every July and some of them show up every day. They just love it,” said Bev Barlow, who has been volunteering at the sale for five years and is one of its seven co-ordinators.
“They ’re a great group of friends. A lot of them are members of the Seniors’ University Group. A lot of them take classes at the Lifelong Learning Centre, but some are family members or friends.”
New friendships are formed all the time through the book sale, said Barlow. While promoting the event at a local farmers’ market, Barlow said she struck up a conversation with a woman she’d never met, who then volunteered to pick up a book donation from a lady in Grenfell.
“She said, ‘I’ll go.’ And I said, ‘Why? It’s an hour and a half.’ ” But the woman wanted to help. She got in touch with the Grenfell book donor to arrange a pickup time, and both ladies agreed to meet halfway in Indian Head.
“They switched the books and then they went to the Indian Head Bakery for coffee and goodies, and I phoned the woman to thank her and she said, ‘Oh, that’s fine. I made a new friend,’ ” said Barlow.
Margo Embury, another coordinator, has been volunteering with the book sale for six years and appreciates the community feel.
“It’s wonderful. People are here because they love books, but there’s also a big social aspect to it,” she said, as she stooped to help another volunteer shift boxes of books under a nearby table.
For volunteer June Petersen, it was love at first sight.
“I was driving by the Lifelong Learning Centre about four or five years ago, saw the big sign that said Big Book Sale, and I went in and I was hooked,” she said. She’s been volunteering at the sale since.
“I work at the library, so I love books. It’s not work to me, it’s fun.”
Donors are also grateful to have a place where they can send their much-loved stories and know someone else will appreciate them.
“They’re so sorry to get rid of their books. They’re like friends, they don’t want to get rid of them, but they have no choice, so they bring them to us to be recycled to someone else who might love them,” said Barlow.
The sale has grown immensely over the past few years, starting with its move from a small location on the College Avenue Campus to the much larger Tartan Curling Club three years ago.
Barlow said she noticed a growth in attendance after the building change because non-university people hadn’t always been comfortable on the College Avenue Campus, or thought the sale only sold textbooks.
This is not the case. From selfhelp to classics to science fiction to children’s stories, the sale’s tens of thousands of books have something for everyone. There are also CDS, DVDS, vinyl records, games and puzzles.
With so many items, the tables can’t hold everything at once, so throughout the sale volunteers go up and down the rows moving items from boxes under the tables to refill newly formed empty spots on top.
“You could come morning and afternoon for three days and you’d be coming to a different sale every day,” said Barlow of the quick turnover. She said some dedicated bargain-hunters do just that, searching for a hidden gem.
Proceeds from the book sale go to support the Lifelong Learning Centre.
Leftover books at the end of the sale are donated to about two-dozen community organizations that need them, including The Book Project, which provides books to inmates in correctional facilities across the province.
All books are priced at $2 or less, with the exception of a few specialty books. DVDS are $2 and CDS are $1.
The Big Book Sale will take place this Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Tartan Curling Club.
The volunteers are anxious to get started every July and some of them show up every day. They just love it. They’re a great group of friends.