Library Book Sale Preparations—

Volunteers Bond Over Books

By Nancy K. Crevier

While organizations that call sporadically for volunteers often find themselves in a pinch, there is one volunteer organization that cruises along with a full staff day after day, month after month, and year after year.

The Friends of the Library is blessed with a reliable and ever-growing group of volunteers who work diligently to ensure that the library’s biggest fundraiser, the annual Labor Day Sale, goes off without a hitch.

“I am a lifelong lover of books. I enjoy working as a volunteer for the library because it’s a worthy cause and I enjoy sharing a common bond with the other volunteers.” In a nutshell, Eleanor Zolov, a volunteer for the past ten years for the Friends of the Library Labor Day Book Sale, sums up the feelings of her book sale cohorts.

It is a love of books and camaraderie that brings dozens of Newtown volunteers together, year around, to sort, categorize, price, alphabetize, and box the thousands of books that are donated for the annual book sale at Fairfield Hills. While there is a core group, more than 100 volunteers are needed as the day of the sale grows nigh. Setting up the books into the many divisions and subdivisions is an awesome job, and with hundreds of visitors expected at the sale, several shifts of volunteers are necessary to help with the actual sales of the more than 100,000 volumes available.

The volunteers come from all walks of life. Librarians, educators, nurses, pilots, office workers, and parents populate the three book-filled rooms on the lower level of the library, where the weeding out of books begins. Many are retired from their day-to-day jobs, but many others, such as 2½-year-old Mason Vales and his mother, bring a more youthful commitment to the book sale as a way to give back to the library and community.

Denise Kaiser, vice president of the Friends, has been sorting books for the sale, in one form or another, for 15 years. Her life outside the Friends is filled with family, friends, and work, which most recently has involved the translation of a book from German to English. She stresses, however, that the book sale work is not another thing to add to her busy list. “It’s a part of my life,” she says. “It’s not an addition to my life.”

For Maureen Armstrong, a Booth librarian for 29 years, volunteering for the Friends was a natural segue way after her retirement six years ago.

“Once a librarian, always a librarian,” laughs Carm O’Neill, who spent 30 years as a librarian for UConn at Stamford and at the Ferguson Library in Stamford. She is in her fourth year of volunteering for the book sale, now that retirement has given her the time to do so.

Dick Hall has more than 3,000 books of his own at home, especially biographies and histories. “I love books,” says this ten-year veteran of the sale, and at 76, the oldest member of the crew. He is quick to point out another unassuming, hardworking volunteer, Joann Zang. “Joann Zang started it [the book sale],” he says. “Without her there’d be no book sale.”

The book sale, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, started out as a few card tables set up in front of the library on Labor Day. Lynn Bassett remembers that it moved into the lower level for a few years, snaking out onto the side lawn under tents. A volunteer off and on since the 70s, Mrs Bassett and her husband, H.D. Bassett, staunchly support this library fundraiser. “I’m a reader and a library user,” she says.

They applauded the move in recent years to larger quarters at Fairfield Hills, a move that allowed the sale to explode to the remarkable event it now is. “We will miss Bridgeport Hall this year,” she adds wistfully, pointing out the packed shelves and boxes of books (17 flats each for authors Grisham and Roberts alone) that will have to be squeezed onto tables in front of Newtown Hall at Fairfield Hills this year. Space allows only the rare and collectible books to be housed inside that building.

Jean Holmes echoes Dick Hall, saying, “I love books. I can’t stay away from them. It’s a very nice and easy place to come to.” She has enjoyed sorting through the books for the past five years, and like the others, is intrigued by the items they come across as they sort the books.

Postcards, stamps, and bookmarks by the boxfuls are pulled from donated books, each one telling the sorters a snippet of the owner’s history. Have you lost those photos you snapped as the rafters were raised on your new home? You might want to check with the volunteers at the library. Photos and love letters are commonly found wedged between the pages.

Autographed books are set aside for special handling. Doug McKenzie notes that this year, “We have three autographed Jimmy Carter books, including The Hornet’s Nest. We get lots of signed books.”

This week, a volunteer passes Ms Kaiser a unique find. A DK Pockets book of dinosaurs is placed in her hands, as she is in charge of children’s books. No matter how enamored a Newtown child is with dinosaurs, though, this little science book might pose a real challenge to most: it is all in Chinese. Ms Kaiser marvels at it, then makes plans to take it home to have the language confirmed by her son, who is majoring in Asian studies. “You never know what you’ll find,” she muses.

Peter and Julie Stern have been dedicated volunteers for five and seven years, respectively. Mrs Stern currently teaches in the philosophy department at Western Connecticut State University, and Mr Stern is a retired teacher from the Weston school system.

“I’ve always had books,” says Mr Stern. “I ‘grew up’ in a bookstore. A good friend owned a bookstore. I had a job as a high school kid at the library on 42nd Street in New York.”

Mrs Stern counts her years as a book sale volunteer not by years, but by T-shirts. “Red, black, orange, blue, rust, pale blue… this is my seventh year,” she announces.

All of the volunteers receive a t-shirt each year, frequently sporting a witty saying such as, “Book Bum” or “Happy Booker.” A different volunteer designs the shirt each year, and this year’s T-shirt has yet to be unveiled.

After weeks of sorting and resorting, categorizing and alphabetizing, and a final push of volunteer activity, the books will be ready to go before September 5. Of course, they won’t get up and walk over to Fairfield Hills. The Friends of the Library is eternally grateful to the town of Newtown, which has already donated the use of a Board of Education truck to move books, and to volunteer Eric Niedhardt, who uses his pickup truck to transport seemingly endless loads of books to their destination. Volunteers will help unload the books and set them up in highly defined categories, making it easy for book browsers to zero in on their favorite genre.

The thought of moving and handling up to 175,000 books is staggering, but what happens if hundreds of volumes are not sold over the five days encompassed by the book sale? Will the volunteers have to rebox the leftovers and schlep them back to C.H. Booth Library for future sales? In a bow to efficiency, book sale organizers make it a point to not bring back any books to the library after the sale ends.

The children’s section is easy. “I’ve never had any children’s books left over,” says Ms Kaiser.

“Fiction and biography books go to Goodwill,” states Mr Stern. “Others go on free day [the last day of the sale each year]. Last year, someone paid for all of the remaining books. It’s a new slate every year.”

It is always a new slate for the volunteers of the Labor Day Book Sale. Books continue to roll in and a new year of sorting will begin as this year’s sale ends. It is a labor of love and a true connection to the community. It is stimulating and tiring, joyful and frustrating. It is the best of times, it is the worst of times, one might say.

With so many books to ponder, “We educate ourselves,” says Mr Stern with a smile.