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Got Books? Wilbraham wants them

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



WILBRAHAM Thinking of tossing those old college textbooks, romance novels or children's books? Think again.

Got Books?, a for-profit professional fundraiser, has a mission of supporting local communities through book sales. A Got Books? donation container located at the Wilbraham Transfer Station will take in donated books, CDs, DVDs, videos and audio books, to be collected and then sold at the company's headquarters in North Reading, Mass., with 50 percent of the profit coming back to the town.

The Got Books? container is available to town residents every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

"This started seven years ago, when I was a part-time accountant for the Marine Corps," president and founder of Got Books? Bob Ticehurst explained. "I got a good deal on a bunch of used books and started selling them at work. As it grew, I started doing it full-time and quit my accountant job. I was selling books online; the Boston Globe did an article on me in 2003 and it just exploded. A university asked me to sell books for them. I kept 50 percent of the funds and I decided to let the rest benefit non-profit organizations."

There are currently over 200 collection containers, from northern Vermont down to the Connecticut-New York border. Ticehurst said he started the container program about one year ago.

Michelle Bushee, marketing coordinator for Got Books?, said the organization approached Wilbraham with information about the donation container program and "the relationship blossomed from there."

"The container was placed [at the transfer station] in October of 2006," Bushee said. Other local towns that have containers include Holyoke, South Hadley and Somers, Conn.

"The books and other items will be collected as often as the container fills up," Bushee explained.

"Containers located in churches and schools have the money come back to them from the sales," Ticehurst said. The charity book sale offers over 45,000 books and other items and is located in a 5,000 square foot warehouse in North Reading which is open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays. Every book costs only $1.

In addition to helping the town of Wilbraham, Got Books? also helps the environment.

"It's a circle of life for the books," Ticehurst said. "They're not getting thrown out, they're being reused. There are still a lot of uses for a lot of stuff."

Books are given to non-profit organizations at no cost, according to Ticehurst, and the organization often sends books to underprivileged children throughout New England.

"We're excited about having a container in Wilbraham," Ticehurst stated. "It's going to save the town a lot of money and save a lot of books from going to the landfill."

He continued that "the next logical step is to open a warehouse in Western Massachusetts."

For more information about Got Books? visit their Web site at www.gotbooks.com.