The Rotary Club of Sarnia Bluewaterland's 2022 book sale has been deemed a success.
Committee member Dale Wilcox said the sale, held in January, February and March at Lambton Mall, was welcomed back enthusiastically after a two year hiatus due to COVID-19.
"We were very, very, pleased," said Wilcox. "The community was so generous in the books they donated and twice as generous in coming back out and buying books, that we certainly had a successful book sale."
Wilcox was thrilled by the amount of funds raised to support local organizations.
"I honestly don't know exactly how many books we had. It had to be over 20,000 and we sold over $30,000 worth of books."
Wilcox said some cheques were just distributed and more will be in the fall.
"We have a whole list of groups that we give our money to on a regular basis. Twice a year we have a committee that looks at the applications that come in. The application is available on our website. We have some regulars that we always check to see if they have a need, like the Inn of the Good Shepherd, Habitat for Humanity, Alzheimer's, Kidney Foundation and Literacy Lambton."
She said they did end up with some books left over.
"Two days after the sale, we let Literacy Lambton, about 28 of the stewards that run the little libraries, the Social Services Network in Sarnia and several other not-for-profit groups know that they could come on Tuesday and pick up free books from what was left to use in their facilities."
The remaining books were distributed to second hand stores in Sarnia and some, including dictionaries, textbooks and encyclopedias, were taken to the dump.
Wilcox said they had a very good experience hosting the event at Lambton Mall and hope the mall has space to accommodate them again next year.
"We'll certainly be letting folks know through the media where they can drop them (books) off if we have to find a different location, but we will be scouting for locations come late fall and we certainly plan to do this again."
She said the group will be looking for good, used, current books again next January.