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Upcoming Rotary Club of White Rock book sale the biggest ever

Cancelled sales have boosted stock on hand; 32,000 books available at opening
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White Rock Rotary Club’s Lorna Baerg helps catalogue stock at the Rotary Field House for the upcoming charity book sale coming to Peace Arch Curling Centre Aug. 27 to Sept. 1. Bill Haymond photo

If COVID recovery and a return to normal activities aren’t going quite to plan, at least there’s a chance for Peninsula residents to stock up on reading material.

The Rotary Club of White Rock’s Charity Book Sale – already a local legend for decades – returns Aug. 27 to Sept. 1 at the Peace Arch Curling Centre in Centennial Park/Ruth Johnson Park.

And it’s being billed as the largest yet, with “50 per cent more books” on offer than ever before and bargains galore in all categories for all book lovers.

“We’ve got a whole bunch of books,” sale co-organizer Keith Becker told Peace Arch News.

What does that translate to, numbers wise?

“On opening day we’ll have around 32,000,” he estimated, “with around 15,000 more waiting in the wings to restock the shelves. And we have lots of volunteers who will keep restocking them.”

The reason there are so many books is easy to fathom – there haven’t been significant book sales by the club since the first COVID emergency hit more than a year and a half ago.

“We’ve cancelled three of them so far,” Becker said.

“We normally do two to three sales each year; one in April, one in August and one at Christmas. We had a small sale in April of 2020, but after that it was cancelled, and there wasn’t one in April of this year.”

Donations for the sale, however, have continued to come in “fast and furious,” he added.

“We filled up our warehouse space (at the Rotary Field House in South Surrey) a few months ago – it got too tight for us to move around,” he said. “The (Peace Arch) Curling Club agreed to let us move 14 pallets of books in their facility, and we’ve already filled that up.”

There’s no shortage of variety, Becker noted.

“We have all genres,” he said. “There are lots and lots of novels, non-fiction, biographies, histories, children’s books, cooking books, art books, crafts books, photography books and large format ‘coffee table’ books.”

Even with the overabundance of supply, Becker doesn’t doubt that there’s a market among Peninsula readers, particularly now.

“A lot of people have been reading during the pandemic,” he said.

“They’ve been reading a lot, so they’re probably ready for new books.”

Even so, with so much stock in hand, organizers have come up with special pricing to tempt book lovers.

For Friday, Aug. 27 and Saturday, Aug. 28 (opening hours 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.) all books will be $3 each.

For Sunday, Aug. 29 and Monday, Aug. 30 (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) all books are $2 each.

And to wind things up, Tuesday, Aug. 31 and Wednesday, Sept. 1 (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) all books will be $2 – or you can fill up a reusable grocery bag for a flat $10 fee.

The Peace Arch Curling Centre is located at 1475 Anderson St., White Rock, and free parking will be available.



alex.browne@peacearchnews.com

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