Friends of the Virginia Library Host Book Sale
The Iron Trail Motors Event Center in Virginia, known as the home of Rock Ridge hockey, took on a new mission this week, turning into the region’s largest used bookstore in a multi-fronted effort to promote literacy, get books into the hands of those who would enjoy them, and to raise money to support programs at the Virginia Public Library.
The Friends of the Virginia Public Library has been hosting the book sale for at least 20 years, according to this year’s sale chairman, Joy Ausman. It started as a small event in the library basement to clear out older, out-of-date books from the collection, and over time it’s grown into a major event that readers across the region look forward to.
The sale has outgrown the library basement and, four years ago, moved to a conference room at the Iron Trail Motors Event Center in Virginia. That proved successful enough that for the past three years the sale has been held inside the arena itself.
Putting this together is no small feat for the volunteers. Last year’s sale saw more than 600 volunteer hours, from collecting community donations of books, records, games, and videos to setting up the 10’s of thousands of titles into categories, staffing the event, and cleaning up after the doors closed on the final day.
The community has responded by donating the vast majority of the books sold, along with a few retired from the library collection. Ausman said that last year the Friends of the Library sold over 40,000 books, and the funds collected have funded a multitude of children’s and community programs at the library. It’s not all about making money either. Books are sold by volume, with a bag for $15.00 to start, and over the course of the sale, books get less expensive until Saturday, when the Friends open it up to a donation system. School teachers are eligible to receive free books for their classrooms, and each child attending the sale also gets a free book.
No matter how popular the sale gets, by the end of the week there will be leftovers. Ausman said they will donate what’s left at the end of the sale to groups like Books for Africa and the Give My Books Network. They are also available to anyone who wants to use them to restock the popular Little Libraries in many area communities.
Joy Ausman said when asked about the labor of love, “We are just focused on helping the library grow and putting books back into the community”
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