Dannevirke Lions Booksale a bonanza for readers

Friday morning and more than 100 customers perused the fiction section of the Dannevirke Lions Booksale.

Close to 10,000 books now reside in people’s libraries throughout Tararua District Hawke’s Bay and Manawatū as a result of the Dannevirke Host Lions Club Booksale.

Another $9000+ resides in Dannevirke Lions’ coffers as a result of the sale and the retailer in Napier, who took a truckload of books not sold last weekend, looks forward to selling them on over the next year. It’s a win-win-win all round.

Another group headed straight for the non-fiction.

This 34th sale was not quite as big as previously – running over three days not five, lacking special value books and missing a music section but there was plenty of choice to suit everyone judging from the boxes and bags which went out in a steady flow.

The Lions Den sells books in its Lions Tale section – mostly the specials – and a separate music section sells CDs DVDs, vinyl and sheet music. Drop in and peruse any Thursday and Saturday, 10am-2pm.

Lions had to have a lot of help – they are not as young as they used to be and the Lions Den operated on Saturday making an additional $2000 of profit – not just for books.

A Taskforce Green group in town for theory training was put to work for several hours hauling the sorted books by box load from under the stage on Thursday, and Cactus volunteers helped shift the boxes on to the truck leaving for Napier on Sunday.

As well, Lions were delighted to receive help throughout the sale from close to 20 volunteers restacking tables, selling, carrying boxes to cars, feeding the Lions and playing the grand piano – it was a total community effort and the proceeds will find their way back into the community.

Sophie Martin dressed as a ladybug had her favourite book I Want To Be.

Customers were pretty pleased with their purchases. One looking for Footrot Flats books to complete his 50-book collection found two he did not have and was going to visit the Lions Tale on Thursday as well.

Lynley Densham from Tararua REAP with Lion Terry Hynes holds books donated by Lions towards their Adult Learning Celebration in September.

Another after craft books and patterns had left Pongaroa in the bitter cold to join the 60-strong throng outside the town hall door at 9am on Friday. A group of tiny tots from St Joseph’s School visited Friday afternoon and went back to school armed with a plentiful supply, while lots of elderly marched out with enough jigsaws to occupy two winters.

Helen Carver and Julian McKeen entertained on Friday afternoon.

Goodwill towards Lions was evident in the willingness to buy the raffles, with most making their purchases of books up to $20 to buy the balance in $1 tickets. One thousand one hundred were sold just on Friday.

President Barbara Ferguson says she was thrilled with the sale and wishes to thank all those who participated and the co-ordinator of the project, Mike Brock, in particular.

Dave Murdoch is a part-time photo-journalist working for the Bush Telegraph and based at Dannevirke. He has covered any community storytelling good news about the district for the last ten years.