Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 7/18/2023
AMHERST — The Giant Book Sale is back. The League of Women Voters will host their annual event beginning July 28.
The gymnasium at the Fort River Elementary School transforms into a massive library and bookstore for the two-weekend sale.
The decades-old undertaking began early this month with two weeks of drop off donations of virtually all kinds of books covering all topics of style and subject matter. CDs and DVDs were also accepted and are also available for purchase.
“We get, I’m going to say 10, 20, 30,000 books at least,” said league member Patricia Farrington. “It is amazing to see how many books come into that gymnasium”.
“People say, ‘oh people aren’t reading books anymore,’ well I think that we have proved that to be false because not only are people donating books but we make, for all the effort that we put in, money every year that sustains the league every year and all of its programs,” Farrington noted.
The league’s programs include scholarships, donations and projects devoted to healthcare, affordable housing and the Connecticut River watershed area. Education, forums and printed voter guides are also part of the league’s responsibilities and are funded by the book sale, the only fundraising event they hold throughout the year.
Farrington said they also try to register voters at the event but sign ups or not, the sale turns into a positive experience.
“People come out of the gym carrying boxes or bags saying, ’oh, I found all the novels that I wanted to read by so and so,’ everybody seemed joyful maybe because they got things that they wanted or things that didn’t even know they wanted for very small amounts of money,” she said.
Many of the leftover books are donated to different organizations and reading programs at the end of the sale.
The Giant Book Sale opens Friday, July 28, continues Saturday and Sunday, July 29-30 and then again the following Saturday and Sunday, August 5-6.
More information can be found at www.lwvamherst.org