Since July 1, Denise Kaiser, the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library Book Sale chairperson, has been preparing Reed Intermediate School for one of the largest used book sales in the region: the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library 48th annual book sale. Throughout the year, Kaiser and other volunteers have been collecting, organizing, and packing thousands of used books for the sale. Proceeds from the sale assist the library through generous grants that bring staff ideas to life.

“The turn-out has been fabulous,” Kaiser said, “We’re confident in our ability to continue supporting the library at the level that we feel our community deserves … It has been awesome.”

Nancy Dvorin, communications director for the Friends, explained, “we are close to where we have been in our best years.”

Though the volunteers are not certain as to how many people came out for the sale, Kaiser said, “We continue to attract more attendees on Friday towards our cap of 200, and we stopped counting at 400 adults soon after opening on Saturday. Since we don’t issue tickets or charge admission on the remaining three days of the book sale, it’s hard to be exact, but perhaps a couple thousand adults plus children enjoyed the book sale this year.”

The Friends started with 206 tables that were overflowing with items. Boxes of books were placed underneath the tables due to lack of space for displaying them all. Kaiser and Dvorin stated that they had about 120,000 items for sale, ranging from books, to puzzles, to audio books, to CDs, to DVDs. By the end of Tuesday, there were about 80 tables left.

The Friends secured assistance from several groups of young adults in town, including the Newtown High School cheerleaders and football players. Friends’ President, Richard Anthony, said, “I’ll tell you, we have a wonderful group of young people in this community helping us set up, helping us in this sale. They are just wonderful.”

Dvorin agreed, saying, “I thought more so this year than any others … We’re all driven by our love for the C.H. Booth Library.”

Both Dvorin and Kaiser were “heartened” to see the outpouring of support from the community this year. Alison James, a long-time volunteer with Friends, said she saw a more constant stream of people coming to the sale compared to last year.

“I’m always delighted to see little kids at this sale come up with their moms, clutching books, smiling, and just so happy to be there, so happy to have these wonderful things to take home to read,” Dvorin said.

The Friends is grateful to everyone who came out for the sale and for all the donors that supported the Friends along the way.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.