Lions club back in the good books
Annual sale takes dozens of hours to bring together
Under the stage of the Dannevirke Town Hall lies a book lover’s dream. Stored there are thousands of books being sorted for the annual Dannevirke Host Lions Club book sale.
For the 12 Lions who meet every week to sort the books, it’s a mammoth task.
Book sale coordinator Barbara Ferguson says with the sale drawing closer and boxes of books still to be sorted, the band of willing helpers was now meeting on Mondays and Thursdays.
Last week their hard work was rewarded when local businessman Craig Boyden organised for Kate Gunson to take her coffee cart to the book sorters and shouted them all morning tea.
“Craig knows we are there every week preparing for the book sale and wanted to recognise what we do,” said Ferguson.
The books are sorted in non-fiction and fiction categories and the fiction
books are then sorted into authors and put in alphabetical order.
Once sorted, the books are placed into banana boxes and stacked ready to be moved into the Town Hall.
Just before the sale, the Dannevirke High School soccer team carries the boxes into the hall and placing them on the 80 trestle tables.
The first delivery happened at Queen’s Birthday Weekend when a truckload of 470 boxes of books arrived from Palmerston North. Since then hundreds more books have poured in.
Among them are books in mint condition, some that look as though they haven’t been opened. These are priced at $2 each, the rest are sold for $1.
Ferguson was surprised by the number of books being donated.
“I don’t think we have ever had as many books as we have this year but, then again, I say that every year.”
Despite its name, the book sale isn’t just made up of books. There are plenty of puzzles and magazines for sale.
It’s the 30th sale to be held. “We are calling it a pearler of a sale as the pearl symbolises 30 years in anniversary terms.”
Last year’s sale raised about $15,000. The money went toward local organisations as well as the rescue helicopter, St John Ambulance and the Health Shuttle.
The Lions book sale begins on Wednesday, July 24 and and runs from 9am to 5pm daily and finishes on Sunday, July 28 at 3pm.