The annual book fair run by Armidale Central Rotary Club is now in its 26th year and is hoping to crack a $100,000 donation windfall.
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The book fair runs until Saturday, May 25 and will be capped with bags of books going out the door for just $5. Organisers have catalogued around 60,000 books to sell with proceeds helping local causes, schools and national charities.
The event raised some $85,000 last year, and has raised more than a million dollars since it began.
![From left to right, Perer Garlick, Becky Ingham-Broomfield, Ian Garske and Andrew Pratt. Just some of the dozens of hard working volunteers raising thousands of dollars for charity through the Rotary book fair in Armidale. Picture Heath Forsyth From left to right, Perer Garlick, Becky Ingham-Broomfield, Ian Garske and Andrew Pratt. Just some of the dozens of hard working volunteers raising thousands of dollars for charity through the Rotary book fair in Armidale. Picture Heath Forsyth](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/220762904/4c2ad967-8765-48e1-b1f2-c6158e7b854d.jpg/r0_367_4032_3028_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Armidale Central Rotary Club past president Andrew Pratt said club volunteers work hard throughout the year to host the fair but the money they raise for various charities makes it all worth the while.
"For this year, we look likely to be beating previous years figures, the 60,000 odd books we have is also an increase on last year's efforts, so the fair is getting bigger and better every time we go in to bat," Mr Pratt said.
Solely run by volunteers, the Rotary book fair contributes significant donations to charities both locally and internationally such as the school of St Jude, Tanzania, however as with any voluntary organisation finding people willing to put up their hands to help is an ongoing issue.
"We're struggling to find the volunteers to keep it going to be honest," Mr Pratt said.
"Otherwise, who knows, maybe we could hold two of these a year and possibly raise even more."
![Ian Garske (left) and Graeme Fordham (right) and two of the dozens of hard working volunteers raising thousands of dollars for charity through the Rotary book fair in Armidale. Picture Heath Forsyth Ian Garske (left) and Graeme Fordham (right) and two of the dozens of hard working volunteers raising thousands of dollars for charity through the Rotary book fair in Armidale. Picture Heath Forsyth](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/220762904/81b1fcc0-3864-4cf9-b6e8-c3d4d9e71ecd.jpg/r0_376_4032_2643_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"Every dollar raised here goes back into the community in some way,"
"Rotary is also heavily involved in different health programs such as polio eradication, also assisting regional families who have children needing to go to hospitals in Sydney or Newcastle with Table lands community Transport, care flight and the Westpac Rescue helicopter.
"In 2003, a team of our people went over to Tanzania to help build the first classrooms, the school of St Jude's founder is an Armidale girl, Gemma Sisia.
"That's just one example of many of these programs that are funded by our book fair.
"We most definitely are asking for a volunteer call out.
"The first book fair we raised $12,000, then the next year it was $16,000 and so on every year with the exception of Covid, it has increased almost exponentially.
"But while the fair itself is getting bigger and bigger, we are getting older and older and few of us are on hand and available to assist in sorting through these mountains of books."
"After 25 years we thought we might have started to exhaust the supply of books with kindles and what have you, but books seem to be as popular and of interest to people than ever before, young and old alike."
Organisers are keen to put the word out that Saturday, May 25, 2024 is D Day for the book fair.
For the cost of only $5, shoppers can fill out a full shopping bag of books.
"We have 300 boxes of kids book, thousands of kids books, we have books of every genre, puzzles, cd's, dvd's, games and even stationary.
"We have an upstairs book collection which are considered to be of a higher quality of books, rare or antique titles.
When it comes to the most popular genre of books going out the door, is it still romance and crime leading the way?
"No, romance is dead," Mr Pratt said with a laugh, "but we do have plenty of Mills and Boons available.
"Some of these titles here would have sold for $40 a year ago, we are giving them away for less than $3."