Read a lot into it: It's time for the AAUW-Kiwanis Used Book Sale
The annual AAUW-Kiwanis Used Book Sale is happening again at the end of the month. Initially the event was presented solely by the Wooster branch of The American Association of University Women, an organization that was founded in 1881 with a mission to empower women and improve their lives.The book sale has a long history with a bit of a rocky start. The first sale was held in 1957 and netted $26. The proceeds went toward the purchase of a book for the junior high school. The next year brought in a similar sum, and the idea was abandoned.
In 1960 Sue Retzler tried again with a Book-Art-Record Fair. With 4,000 books featured, profits skyrocketed to $514, and the rest of the story is, well, an open book.
Through many locations and much hard work and sorting, the book sale has thrived, providing well-used funding for Wooster's AAUW scholarship funds and more recently many Kiwanis projects as well.
The book sale took an exciting turn in 1993. The movie, “The Shawshank Redemption,” was filming at Mansfield Penitentiary. The production team required lots of old books, and they were referred to the Wooster branch of the AAUW. Initially 5000 books were sold for the movie and more were requested. A record amount of money was collected the following year and working on collecting and preparing books for the sale became a year-round project.
The sale continued to grow and expand so much that in 2008 a partnership was formed with Kiwanis to share the responsibility of the huge endeavor. The sale now occurs at the fairgrounds and involves year-long preparations.
Cathy Stone, AAUW and Kiwanis member, is one of three co-chairs of the book sale. Stone explained that Kiwanis is “a global organization dedicated to improving the world one child and one community at a time.”
Kiwanis uses their share of the event proceeds to address a wide variety of local needs. Don Ackerman, Kiwanis member and another co-chair, said that the Kiwanis funds are allocated “depending on what the community wants and needs ... everything from Christmas Run Playground to NuHop camp, The Viola Starzman Free Clinic, children's literacy, scholarships and more.”
AAUW funds are used to “fund scholarships for Wayne County women who for some reason had their college interrupted ... could be illness, family situation, they didn't have enough money for tuition any longer,” Stone said.
Gail Carter, AAUW member and the third chairperson on the team, said, “Sometimes there might have been a change in someone's life, and now they have to go get a degree. It's been thousands of dollars over the years.”
Stone said, “Quite often it stays local. They become teachers, social workers, nurses and end up working in the area.”
Putting on an event like this is no easy feat. “It's really a community project,” Stone said. “We usually get the girls soccer team from Wooster High School along with other school organizations to help with set-up and tear-down. Help comes from the career center and sometimes community service workers as well.”
While much of what is needed to transport the books is donated, there is still a need for an additional forklift and operator. “For next year,” Carter said, “we would love someone to donate warehouse space. Sometimes in the winter we have had to cancel because it's just too cold in our current location or it is simply too inaccessible in bad weather.”
A week or two after the sale ends, the team goes into action and begins preparing for the next year's sale. Books are collected all year long. Every Saturday beginning in mid-October, books may be dropped off between 10 a.m. and noon at the current warehouse location, 214 N. Bever St., behind AutoZone. The entrance door is located on the alleyway, Thomen Court.
The sale is extremely organized, and the variety of books is outstanding. Every book is inspected, cleaned, categorized and priced according to volunteer research. Occasionally gems are located among the thousands of donations. It's possible to find a book that is 100 years old or more, and there are sometimes personal inscriptions.
This year Stone found “a tiny book from 1931, ‘Fragments in Prose, Gathered from the Correspondence of William Cowper.' It's priced at $50, which is below what it was listed for online.” (Having a book priced that high is unusual.)
Is it hard to work amongst all those books and not end up buying some? “I like when we find ones I read as a child,” Carter said.
This year's sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sept. 28-30 and Oct. 1 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 30 is Half-Price Day, and Oct. 1 is Bag Day: fill a paper grocery bag with books for $5. The book sale takes place in the Home Economics Building (Buss Hall) on the Wayne County Fairgrounds.
For more information regarding AAUW or Kiwanis or to arrange to donate warehouse space, forklift assistance or other donations, visit their websites at www.woosterkiwanis.org and wooster-oh.aauw.net/.