Betty Simpson was at work at the St John book sale last Friday.
PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS
Betty Simpson was at work at the St John book sale last Friday.
PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS
The St John's Book Sale has been going for years, and as well as being an essential fundraiser for the charity, it has also become a regular feature on many an avid reader's calendar. July this year will mark the 125th St John Book Sale in Whanganui.
Betty Simpson and JennyBurkett have been in attendance since the sales started. Midweek went along to the first sale of 2019, held at the Tawa St St John Headquarters. "The book sale is important to St John, because it's continuous money coming in," Betty says. "It's not guaranteed what we're going to make, but we aim every time to reach about $3000. Most times we make it." The weekend's sale raised $3200. "Add it all up and it's thousands and thousands we put into keeping this place running."
There are five book sales per year, and one of those is for the Hospital of St John in Jerusalem in May.
Thirty-eight volunteers came to the aid of St John to prepare and run the recent three-day sale. "We have a team which comes in and sets up on the Wednesday, then we have those who work while the sale is on with however much time they have to give us, and then we have another team that adds to those to help us pack up. We do pretty well for volunteers," says Betty. "They love books but they also love volunteering."
"I've got a great team down there," says Jenny. "They're such lovely folk. Five were from the Youth Division." Working in the sale enables them to earn community service hours. "My oldest volunteer turns 90 this year." That's Shirley Loveridge who was selling raffle tickets over the weekend.
Sourcing books is never a problem. They come from retired people moving into rest homes, deceased estates, and casual donations of books from down-sizing. "We get them from all sorts of places," says Betty. Books also come from municipal and school libraries. "Some books come in in mint condition," says Owen Jones, a long-term volunteer. Betty says she's grateful for the increasing numbers of men volunteering.
Business was steady over the three days, with plenty of people leaving with bags or boxes full of reading matter, and Whanganui MP Harete Hipango making a book-buying appearance. Jenny says bundles of magazines were the biggest seller this time.
