Massive sale big news for bookworms

PENTICTON – Read any good books lately? If you haven’t, you won’t want to miss this week’s golden opportunity to find some spring reading at the Rotary Club of Penticton-Okanagan’s annual book sale on right now.

You'll also be contributing to worthy causes.

Past President Ian Esson says this is the clubs' 11th year running  the sale, formerly operated by the Skaha Rotary Club. It’s Rotary’s biggest fundraiser of the year.

Thousands of books, easily viewable, are laid out on tables at the Penticton Curling Club. The sale continues all week until Saturday, open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. There’s also a large number of DVDs, CDs, and LPs, including some vintage vinyl records.

Books are sold for $3 per pound, DVDs and other media go for $3.

“All books are donated. We collect them through February to April,” Esson says. “All proceeds go to community or world based charitable projects.”

The club has donated in the past to the Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation. Internationally, the group contributes to a project in Bangladesh where they have adopted two villages. In a cooperative effort with the Dhaka Rotary Club, 14 water wells and the installation of sanitary facilities have made a difference, Esson says.

Rotary has also donated to an international organization called Shelter Box. It sends kits containing a tent and supplies for 10 people to parts of the world affected by various crisis.

"That program has been very good for us, because the federal goverment has matched our contribution one for one," Esson says. “As an organization, the Rotary Club is also trying to eradicate polio. Our goal is to serve the community."

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.