Armidale Rotary Book Fair raises $85,000

With $85,000 raised in the week-long annual event, the cumulative amount of money raised over the past 25 years exceeded one million dollars.

The funds are welcomed by local, national and international causes. The bulk of the funds raised are distributed to local charities, schools and organisations.

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The book fair has become part of the region's social calendar, attracting several hundred book lovers from the city and nearby towns all keen to snap up a bargain from the up to 50,000 titles on offer.

President Andrew Pratt said it is the longest, continuous running used-book sale in the New England and North-West NSW.

It also attracts a large contingent of second-hand bookstore owners from Newcastle to the Queensland border.

"We are over the moon with this year's result - it will enable us to give back even more to our community," Mr Pratt said.

"The incredible things is that all the books, CDs, DVDs and games are donated by the people of Armidale.

"Without their generosity we wouldn't be able to distribute all those funds and a lot of worthy causes would miss out.

"We want to send a big thank you to all our wonderful donors who support us year round," he said.

Armidale Central Rotary had its first book sale at the University of New England's Lazenby Hall in 1998 when the club was offered books, surplus to the needs of Dixon Library.

Now all the high-quality books for sale over the eight days of the Book Fair are donated by individuals, schools and libraries from the communities of Armidale, Guyra and Uralla.

Before 2014 book donations were stored and sorted in the garage of club stalwart and instigator of the Book Fair, Ces Spencer.

In 2013 the Armidale Jockey Club leased Armidale Central Rotary Club some land on the corner of Canambe and Dumaresq streets where club members built the Rotary Book Shed, named in honour of Ces, who died shortly before its opening.

Now the shed is a hive of activity every Monday and Friday morning where all the donated books, CDs, DVDs, LPs and board games are sorted, packed and stored for the annual sale in May.

Often the big, yellow book bin, into which people deposit their books has to be emptied four times a week because of the generosity of the local community.

Donated materials that don't match saleable criteria are not wasted - they are donated for recycling to local charity Ascent. Proceeds from this help employ up to 20 workers at the plant.

National and state wide organisations also benefit from the book sales, and international Rotary efforts are also supported through programs for the eradication of polio and malaria.

Rotary has also provided emergency accommodation (Shelter Boxes) in war torn areas such as Ukraine and disaster areas such as earthquake affected Turkey.

The club has also been an active supporter of the School of St Jude, founded by Armidale local Gemma Sisia, (nee Rice).

Club members built the first two classrooms for Gemma's school in Tanzania and the club funds two full student scholarships.

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