Military books targeted for charity
PETER English spends much of his time helping to organise the city’s largest Book fair and he has some good news:
The 2022 Rotary Club of Dubbo Macquarie Michael Egan Memorial Book Fair is on Saturday and Sunday, May 7 and 8 in the Centenary Pavilion at Dubbo Showground.
The club has been receiving donations of books from the public throughout the last year, and is grateful for that support.
"We cannot run our Book Fair without the wonderful support from the community and we have public collection running today (Thursday, February 24)."
Donations of books can be dropped off in the car park outside the Meals on Wheels Dubbo office at 3/74 Mountbatten Drive between 9am and 4pm. This will be a Covid-safe drop off so please place your books in or on the various pallet configurations. There will be Rotary signage on Mountbatten Drive indicating where the drop off point is.
"We didn’t hold the 2020 book fair which was devastating for our club but most importantly the beneficiaries of the proceeds, which are Dubbo RFDS Support Group and Cancer Research at Royal North Shore Hospital," Mr English said.
"Both of those beneficiaries still went about their life saving work during Covid-19 and we felt that we had let them down by not being able to support them in their hugely important and vital work.
"Our book fair in 2021 was almost the best we have ever had, so there was obviously some pent-up demand from the public for good quality books. That buoyed us from the fact that the public love the event and as a direct consequence, enthusiastically support the important work of the fair’s beneficiaries."
Mr English said the club successfully ran the book fair last year in 2021 in a Covid-safe manner and are fortunate the venue is "big and airy so people can feel assured that we are being conscious of people’s safety"."
So what kind of donations is the club seeking?
"It’s easier to say what we can’t take," he said. "Magazines, encyclopedias, study/ school/reference books and Readers Digests. "Unfortunately, there is only a very small market for those style of books and we don’t have the capacity to hold that genre.
"Having said that we accept anything else that's in good order.
"The genre we sell out of every year is militaria so if people have any war related books, we would gratefully accept any and all quantities of those style of books.
It would be "hugely helpful" if people can drop off their pre-loved books during today's collection day (Thursday) February 24 but if you can’t for whatever reason, please call Peter English on 0417 885088 so alternative arrangements can be made.
Alternatively, donations will be accepted on Friday, May 6 at the Centenary Pavilion in the Showground complex between the hours of 9am to 2pm.
"We would love to sell out all the books so we don’t have to pack up," said Mr English.
"To help us do this we will
again offer the chance for the public to BYO bag, box or wheelbarrow and take away all you can carry for $5.00 for the last hour of the Book Fair on Sunday, May 8 (12 noon to 1pm).
"You have to remember that you may not get the book or books you want as someone else may have picked it up on the Saturday so you may have to visit twice to check what we have."
Mark the diary for May 7 and 8 and remember all proceeds go to Dubbo RFDS Support Group and cancer research at Royal North Shore Hospital.