Every Volunteer’s An Expert At The Booth’s Annual Book Sale

By Jan Howard

It takes about 100 volunteers, some working year round and behind the scenes, to make the C.H. Booth Library’s annual Labor Day Book Sale the successful event it always is.

Each volunteer brings a particular expertise or interest to help make the library book sale one of the largest, most user-friendly in the area, whether sorting, pricing, or boxing books, helping with mailings, working as cashiers during the sale, keeping track of funds, or helping out with the myriad other tasks.

The library sale, one of New England’s largest, will be held for the 25th consecutive year from September 2 to 6 at Bridgeport Hall on the former Fairfield Hills Hospital campus. Rain or shine, the sale will be open September 2, 9 am to 5 pm; September 3, 10 am to 5 pm; September 4, 9 am to 2 pm and 2:30 to 4:30 pm; September 5, 2 to 6 pm; and September 6, 10 am to 4 pm. On Saturday only, admission will be charged of $10, 9 am to noon, and $5, noon to 5 pm. Tickets go on sale at 7 am. 

Refreshments are available Saturday through Monday. All proceeds from the sale benefit the Booth Library.

The book sale volunteers know a lot about different types of books, according to coordinator Joanne Zang. “They are always trying to learn more about their particular specialties,” she said.

“We do more sorting and alphabetizing than most book sales,” she noted.

Mrs Zang, who has spearheaded the sale for its entire 25-year history, noted that volunteers Nancy Fansher and Dick Zang spend the entire weekend of the sale shut up in a room counting money. Mr Zang, she added, spends the Friday night before the book sale putting up directional signs.

“Eric Neidhardt, Brian Gibney, and Brad Porter, those three strong men, are just incredible, moving books, loading them, and driving them to Bridgeport Hall,” Mrs Zang said.

John Renjilian has volunteered his expertise as a rare book dealer to the sale for about 23 years. His is the final word on whether a book is valuable or rare. “John is so valuable to us,” Mrs Zang said. “It’s a hard field, and first editions are difficult.”

Dick Hall has taken on the job of rounding up the trash accumulated during the sale preparations. “Every week, twice a week, he takes the garbage to the dump. He loads up his car,” Mrs Zang said. “He’s done it for years. We couldn’t do without him.”

Judge Bill Lavery hands out the tickets at 7 am on the first day of the sale. “The night before, the dealers get unofficial numbered tickets, and then reassemble at 7 am,” Mrs Zang explained. “Sometimes there are disagreements. Who’s the best to handle it? A judge! Judge Lavery has been doing it for years.”

Mrs Zang said one year she tried to determine how many hours the volunteers had donated to the book sale effort. “It was impossible to do,” she said, with so many people working at different times and in different ways.

 Mrs Zang is appreciative of all the volunteers and the local companies that make donations to the sale. Rand Whitney supplies stock overruns or rejected boxes that are used to transport books to Bridgeport Hall, and Curtis Packaging donates poster board for book category signs. Craig and Connie Weatherup of Pepsi donate 60 cases of soda to be sold at the food booth.

 There are other volunteers with particular expertise who are familiar faces during the sale and the preparations leading up to it. Daniel Cruson, the town’s historian, helps out in the rare books room every year as well as sorting and pricing history books. Julie Starkweather, who years ago contributed the remarkable idea of alphabetizing books by author and putting them in categories, year-round sorts the thousands of paperbacks donated to the library. Gloria Palmer has manned the cook book corner for several years and will be missed when she moves to Michigan the end of this month. Isabelle Koehler evaluates first edition books, and Jack Corcoran takes care of the various books about computers and computer software.

  These are only a few of the 100 or so dedicated volunteers who offer their help and expertise, many of them behind the scenes, to put together one of the largest book sales in the area.

Of all the volunteers, one person, Mrs Zang, has been there throughout it all. Volunteer Dick Hall summed it up recently. “It’s unbelievable how hard Joanne works, which is all the time. She has a way of getting people to work for her. Without her there wouldn’t be a book sale.”