For 22 years St John book sales have been turning pages into cash for the vital community service.
The most recent one has just finished at the St John base in Gonville and organiser Jenny Burkett said there was a great turnout despite the bad weather and sickness which had been lingering.
"Friday was very good," she said.
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The sale is held four or five times a year and provides funds for the St John operation in Whanganui.
All money stays locally.
"We have a very good supply of books," Mrs Burkett said.
"They're donated to us and we have a working bee once a week to sort them, to put them into catalogues and to price them."
It is one of the main fundraisers for St John and goes towards paying for things such as community service programmes, the health shuttle and cadet programme.
"It certainly helps. We use it to support our community services programmes," Mrs Burkett said.
"Where else are we going to get the money from?
"I can assure you we'd be lost without it because funding gets harder all the time.
"Also, I think it's good PR for us too. People see us, they come to us and they know where we are. We've been doing it for 22 years so."
Mrs Burkett said magazines in particular seemed to be popular this time around.
"It's good to see our regular customers, there's a lot of friendly faces," she said.
"People love coming. I think it's a good atmosphere and they meet friends and can have a catch up."
The next St John book sale will be held on October 5-7..