Get ready to find your next favourite read while keeping books circulating in our community
The Selkirk Rotary Club is at it again hosting their gigantic community book sale. With an estimated 26,000 books that will be available between Sept. 23 to 28 at the Agricultural Building in Selkirk Park, this is likely to be their biggest sale yet and an excellent excuse to stock up on reasonably priced books in advance of the cold weather that will be here in a few months time.
“The Rotary has had [the book sale] on an annual basis and we’ve been doing it for quite a number of years. It’s been in various locations in the City of Selkirk, and it’s [made possible through] book donations, from the community,” said Ruth Konzelman, Selkirk Rotary Club director and co-chair of the book sale.
The Selkirk Rotary Club is a big advocate for increasing the literacy of all members of our community and this event not only gives people an opportunity to pick up a great read at a great price but keeps books circulating in our communities meaning that it’s great for the planet as well as the pocketbook.
Konzelman explained that the Rotary Club couldn’t continue to host this event if it wasn’t for local business Red Bomb Fireworks which accepts book donations throughout the year and stores the books until it’s time for the annual book sale.
“[The donations] come in all forms. They come in bags of books, they come in boxes and when [Red Bomb] have enough, they shrink wrap them on a pallet, and they store the pallets of books. For us this year, I understand we have over 26 pallets of books that have been accumulated and when you consider a pallet maybe has thirty cartons on it, that’s a lot of books,” said Konzelman.
Though the Rotary Club can’t list exactly what they have for sale as it’s dependant on what people from our community have donated throughout the year, they know that they very likely will have a good variety of fiction, non-fiction and topic-specific books in a variety of subjects.
“It’s really exciting opening the boxes up to find what’s in there. A lot of people hoard their books. Books are hard things to get rid of. If you’re an avid reader, you can have an emotional attachment to them, and for a lot of people, it’s a big decision to give away their books. But other people, they’re minimalists. They read a book and they donate it. We have books of all sorts, and until we start opening those cartons, we really don’t know what we have, but we do know we have lots of books,” said Konzelman.
The Agriculture building in Selkirk Park has been the location of the book sale over the past few years. According to Konzelman, it’s been a great place for the sale because they are able to set up many tables with many books for people to choose from, however, despite the large space they can’t have every book that’s been donated out at once. So when books sell, the group’s volunteers then grab more books to fill their place. This means that throughout the five days of the book sale stock rotates and is an excellent excuse to swing by for a second or third pass through.
The booksale location is also great because there is a large parking lot for residents to use as well as the space being accessible for mobility aids and wheelchairs.
As for the prices, like the location they will be the same too.
“The book prices will remain the same this year as they have in the past. That’s, once again, hardcovers [at $2] and paperbacks are $1, children’s hardcovers are 25 cents, and the children’s softcovers are three for a quarter. We will have a table of collectibles and we’re also going to have a table of recent addition hardcovers that will be individually,” said Konzelman.
The time of the book sale also takes place over a weekend and weekdays and takes place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Konzelman explained that this is so that everyone from our community from families with young children to seniors should, hopefully, have a chance to head out at a time that fits their schedules.
As for people who would like to lend a hand at the book sale, the Rotary Club is always open to accepting volunteers.
“We can always use volunteers. We have a few days that are a little light for volunteers for sorting which is the week prior to the sale, and volunteers to help us with the book sale. We’re always happy to see volunteers. If they’d like to volunteer in some capacity, they can contact us through the Rotary Club’s Facebook Page,” said Konzelman.
The Rotary Club of Selkirk is a non-profit in our community and the group has in the past fundraised for many causes locally. Some of the projects that they’ve been part of making happen are the skate park in Selkirk Park, the echocardiogram machine at the Selkirk Hospital, the peace poles that you will be able to see at local parks in the Tri-S area and more.
This book sale naturally is going to fundraise for another local project.
“We have committed $150,000 to the Gaynor Family Library’s children’s section expansion and the money raised from this will be going towards that $150,000 commitment,” said Konzelman.
And, if there happen to be books left over from the book sale, they don’t go to waste. The books that remain are donated to programs that have books available at food banks throughout our province. Some books also end up with children in northern communities as well to contribute to greater access to books for kids in more remote areas.
Konzelman explained that everyone in our community from seniors to babies, people who are learning English and people who are voracious readers who read through books faster than they can find them, are all welcome to come out to the booksale.
“It’s a great community event. There are hundreds of great books and some of them won’t even make it to the table the first few days. So come a couple of times,” she said.
