PORT Macquarie Rotary is booked out again – well almost.
For the next couple of weeks members will be so busy getting ready for their Giant Book Sale that they will probably be counting books in their mind as they go to sleep and quite possibly even having nightmares about them as well.
More than 50,000 books will be up for grabs at Port Panthers during the massive three-day sale, which will be held on Friday 12 April (5pm to 9pm), Saturday 13 April (9am to 8pm) and Sunday 14 April (9am to noon).
Port Macquarie Rotary’s biggest single yearly fund-raiser, the labour involved in transporting, sorting and displaying the books for sale is a huge task – as is packing the left-over books to go back to storage or dispose of those getting past their use-by date.
Book sale publicity officer Geoff Workman said it was such a big task that even though 40 Rotary volunteers help, they enlist the aid of the Vietnam Veterans Association for some of the heavy lifting and carting involved.
He said as a thank you to the Vets for their assistance last year Rotary donated $500 to the Vets, which was used to help pay for educational visits to local schools in the lead up to Anzac Day.
Mr Workman said the sale would be pretty close to paradise for the Hastings book lovers because the town’s last bookstore, the Book Warehouse, closed earlier this year, leaving booklovers with nowhere to buy new books.
“The Giant Book Sale is a great opportunity to stock up – there is just about anything you want, from novels and biographies to cooking books and children’s books,” he said. “Even CDs, DVDs and sheet music.”
He said this was 16th year the sale would be held and Rotary hoped to raise at least as much money as in previous years.
“Last year we raised $19,000 and the year before $20,000 and we are really hoping that we get up to the $20,000 mark this year,” Mr Workman said.
All the books in the sale are second-hand and there is still time to donate books – just drop them off at the Subaru dealership in Gordon Street. Books should obviously be in good condition and something that will be of interest to book buyers.
