62nd Annual Book Sale ~ April 24-25-26, 2025

Our hearts are full! In these past few months we have witnessed the power of people coming together to accomplish something wonderful! Here’s a perfect quote from Sandy Strachan, one of our many volunteers: “The book sale is such a celebration of ‘the best of each for the good of all’. It lifts everyone’s spirits and reminds us all that there are so many good, kind, hard-working and precious people at Fairlawn and in our neighbourhood!”   

Where to start? Thanks to Jan’s detailed legacy notes and a mighty group of seasoned volunteers, we pulled it off!  We sorted and priced 15,000 books, sold more than half and donated the rest to one charity or another. 

Volunteers came from Fairlawn and the local community. We are so grateful to all of them for making the sale possible. Unfortunately, we don’t have the space to name everyone here, but we’d like to mention a few:

Tom and I may have been the official overall conveners, but Sharon Barrett Ewing was right there with us every step of the way, including organizing and supporting our weekly sorters.  Sharon, thank you!

We’d also like to thank the following book sale Chairs:

Online advertising and community newspapers: Kathy Magladry

Flyer distribution: Barb Steep and Allan Hux

Sandwich board advertisement management: Barb Springay and Allan Hux

Lawn sign collection: Doug Knights and Jim Pollock

Volunteer Sign up Genius management: Kathryn Cullen

Large donation pick up: Bob Stobie

Refreshment coordinator: Sandy Strachan

Treasurer: Doug Crozier

Techie support: Heather de la Rua

Clean-up Crew coordination: Chuck Lawand and Barb Steep

After sales coordination: Ruth Hall

If you donated books, picked up books, sorted and priced books, thank you! If you helped with advertising by posting flyers, putting up sandwich boards, posting to social media or putting up a lawn sign, thank you! If you provided refreshments for the volunteers and/or made sure the kitchen was a welcome refuge for volunteers seeking a break from the hectic pace of the sale, thank you! And then there are the more than 100 volunteers it took to run the three days of the sale – volunteers who helped with set up; cashiers who remained calm and focussed as customers checked out with literally bags of books; volunteers who played a security role, welcoming and thanking everyone as they left; and volunteers who kept tables replenished and helped people find what they were looking for – thank you! And finally, the clean-up crew who boxed up all the unsold books and carried them upstairs to be carted away in trucks for charity; took down the tables and made the assembly hall look like it had never housed 15,000 books – thank you!

Over the three days of the sale, we witnessed community coming together. Old friends running into each other unexpectedly; strangers recommending books to one another across the tables; comments of appreciation for the wonderful selection of books and the fact that we are a neighbourhood tradition; and the parting comment of ‘see you next year’ heard over and over again. 

Wow! Jan always said it takes a village. Indeed! We thank you from the bottoms of our hearts!

Tom and Kathy Salisbury