Mark your calendars for Book Drive
Got books?
We know you do and we want them for the 21st annual Times Colonist Book Sale.
You can start pruning your book shelves now and drop off the trimmings at the Victoria Curling Club at 1952 Quadra St. on April 21 and 22.
The drive-through book dropoff runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each day.
Volunteers will take the books off your hands, sort them and put them up for sale at the same location May 5 and 6.
The proceeds from the sale support school libraries and literacy programs across Vancouver Island.
To make the drop-off easier, we ask that you pack books in boxes or bags that we can keep.
The event accepts all good used books except for encyclopedias, textbooks, magazines, medical books, Reader’s Digests and National Geographics.
Be warned that the book drive draws a big crowd each year and the lineup will move a lot quicker if you remain in your vehicle and let the volunteers do all the lifting.
And speaking of volunteers, we could use a few more to help unload and sort through the mounds of reading material that we receive each year. If you’re interested, email TCBookDrive @timescolonist.com.
As for the sale itself, the prices will be the same as previous years: Hardcovers $3, softcovers $2, pocketbooks and children’s books $1. Payment is by cash, debit, MasterCard, Visa or American Express; no cheques, please.
There’s free parking on Quadra and pay parking at the curling club or next door at SaveOn Foods Memorial Centre. The No. 6 bus runs past the curling club on Quadra.
The curling club will open again May 7 so that schools and non-profit groups can take as many of the remaining books as they want — for free.
Anything left over gets shipped to a company in the United States that raises money for charities.
The Times Colonist Book Sale raised $167,000 last year, bringing our 20-year total to about $2.5 million.
We’ve distributed about double that thanks to corporate and private donations as well as matching money from the province.
All in all, it’s a great event. You get rid of books that you no longer want, other people buy them and the money helps people learning to read and write. Thanks in advance for taking part.