Whanganui Red Cross Bookshop reopens

Red Cross volunteers setting up the new bookshop are Lesley (left), Trudy, Lindsay and Lyn. Photo / Paul Brooks

With a new location, same dedicated staff, and even more space for books, Whanganui's Red Cross Bookshop is open again for business.

Last Thursday, like many other days recently, a small group of volunteers was working, awaiting an influx of an even-bigger team, ready to turn the new premises into an operating charity bookstore.

Trudy and Lindsay Taylor – branch secretary and branch treasurer respectively – were helped by co-volunteers Lesley, Lyn and Tracy. Banana boxes, filled and empty, were strewn about the floor; shelves were full or waiting to be filled.

Orders from Red Cross head office in Wellington meant they had to leave the building the charity owns in Guyton St and find something less prone to damage in an earthquake.

Lindsay says Property Brokers and Bayleys kept a lookout for a new place for them.

"They went out of their way to find us places."

Brendan Bartley also offered a place to store books until a space was found for the shop.

Red Cross found the ideal space to lease at 73 Liverpool St, formerly occupied by Porse, and, as luck would have it, right next to a building leased by the Red Cross Disaster Team. Landlord Craig Mitchell-Anyon was only too happy to let them use the space.

"And we've got a coffee shop next door," says Trudy. "What more could we want?

"We're so grateful to Craig for coming through for us." She says Craig learned of their plight when he visited Tracy at the Red Cross stand at the recent Home Show at Jubilee Stadium.

The premises are perfect for the bookshop, but first aid training has had to relocate to the Laird Park Bowling Club where they rent on a casual basis until a permanent place is found.

Trudy says loyal customers have been waiting for the shop to reopen.

The premises are larger, with space for a decent-sized stockroom, storerooms, toilets and an office, with high ceilings accentuating the roominess. Heat pumps throughout deliver climate-controlled comfort. The place was built as a Westpac branch in the 1980s.

"Selling books is one thing, but it's the interaction the volunteers have," says Lindsay.

"The books are selling, but the volunteers are having fun as well. It's multi-purpose."

Trudy says there are about 30 bookshop volunteers, working three-hour shifts.

The book sales fund Red Cross programmes, but the shop allows social interaction with volunteers and the public. It helps that most of the volunteers are passionate about books.

"We sell about 70,000 books a year," says Lindsay.

"We also sell collectable books on Trade Me," says Tracy. It was Tracy who co-ordinated the move from Guyton St to Liverpool St, although she insists it was a team effort. She's in charge of Trade Me sales.

Lindsay's firefighter colleagues helped by building the shelves in the new shop.
"It's been a huge team effort."

"This is our fundraiser," says Trudy. "Without funds we can't run our programmes, and that's what Red Cross is. We give back to the community; we help in disasters, we help by doing those first aid courses, and we help in lots of other ways. We want to keep doing that."

The Red Cross Bookshop opened on Monday morning, without fuss or fanfare, but with shelves filled with books and familiar faces of bookshop volunteers waiting to serve.

They are accepting donations of books now.