Date: Fri 06-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

Booth-Library-book-sale

Full Text:

WITH PHOTO: Despite Some Obstables, Library Book Sale Was A Success

B Y A NDREA Z IMMERMANN

If it is true that whatever goes around comes around, the success of Friends

of the Library book sale is a fitting example. Eleven months of hard work that

culminated this weekend in more than $45,000 in book sales, could have been

thwarted many times over if it were not for the good will of volunteers,

neighboring businesses, and even the electric company.

"It was a fantastically successful book sale. We sold about 70,000 books,"

said co-chair of the book sale Joanne Zang, who collapsed into a plastic chair

at the shopping center for a few minutes Tuesday night to recount some of the

highlights of the sale.

The volunteers set up the book sale Friday night and hired a guard to keep

watch during the night. Mrs Zang was leaving at 7:45 pm when she saw a dealer

pull up to be the first in line when the sale opened 11 hours later. A large

group had congregated by midnight.

"We had Judge Lavery give out the official numbers at 7 am on Saturday. When

he arrived there were already 139 [people] in line," said Mrs Zang. "We asked

Judge Lavery because we needed someone with the wisdom of Solomon to solve all

these problems. There have been fist fights out there in the past."

People came from all over to buy books at the library book sale. Regulars from

Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Jersey joined local residents in browsing

through more than 100,000 books displayed on tables and in boxes. Saturday

afternoon, an elderly woman found a book at the sale that she had been

searching for for 20 years, according to book sale co-chair Barbara Yarbrough.

They had a crowd the first two days of the sale, but organizers felt that

after the parade "everybody was too hot" to stop by. "But we were absolutely

ready for the hurricane - we `lashed' the book sale down!" said Mrs Zang.

One day, 12 volunteers wearing red aprons and of "various ages and sizes"

attempted the Macarena in the parking lot near the tents of the book sale.

"We had a great time - that's the whole point of it, right?" said Mrs Zang,

who established the book sale 21 years ago. She announced her retirement as

co-chair after serving continuously during the past two decades. "My son will

be 21 next year and he'll be off on his own. The book sale is now 21 years old

so it's mature now. It will have to step off into the future by itself.

"We are very thankful to Joe Kasper for providing this space." Mr Kasper, who

owns the Newtown Shopping Center, provided the solution to the first problem

faced by Friends this year - where to hold the book sale. The construction at

the library prevented them from holding the sale on the library grounds, as

they had in previous years. Although tents were set up in the parking lot,

many books were offered in the site of the former A&P. Rare books were set up

in the former telephone store in the plaza but when volunteers went to switch

on the lights, they found that the meter had been removed. The electric

company was down within one day to reinstall it and provide power to that

location, said Mrs Zang.

More than 100 volunteers worked at the sale, some for a few hours, others for

the entire four days. My Place Pizza and Restaurant donated beverages and

pizzas to feed volunteers during the three days of the sale.

DAYTOP residents offered to pack the remaining 10,000 books and load them onto

a Goodwill truck headed for the organization's national book sale in

Washington, DC. "Nothing was wasted. We appreciate that they picked them up.

This will keep the books in circulation and allow others to enjoy them," said

Friends President Marian Wood. "Everybody benefited from this - the community,

the library, Goodwill, and those who support Goodwill."