Community
22 March, 2024
A book lover’s paradise
AVID readers, movies fans and those who enjoy a good bargain were not disappointed at the Lismore Community Health Centre Ladies Auxiliary’s book fair over the weekend.
Books were sold for as little as $1 or $2, with some people walking out the door with multiple bags full of books from the sale.
Ladies Auxiliary secretary Lorraine Graham said the low prices meant lots of books were sold over the weekend.
“I think people were quite happy to get in there and get their hands on some bargains,” she said.
“I can’t thank the people who donated books, DVDs, magazines and all sorts of stuff enough.
“They’ve been absolutely wonderful with their donations.
“The donations were absolutely brilliant, and the quality of most of the books was almost like brand new. You couldn’t criticise them.
“I wanted to say a special thank you to Derrinallum Library, who donated quite a substantial amount of books, and they were in excellent condition.”
Ms Graham said the Ladies Auxiliary raised around $1600 from the book fair, which made her feel “pretty good”.
“It’s always nice to raise more, but you can’t be greedy,” she said.
“The Lismore Health Centre are running a breast screening bus to Geelong, so some of that money is going to go towards subsidising that so people can go and not have to pay for the bus.
“We’re doing that in the hope that some people who may not be as advantaged as others might consider going on the bus, and we might just save that one person from getting breast cancer.
“It probably sounds a bit silly, but it has happened before; we’ve had a few cases where people have gone down to Geelong on these buses, not knowing that they’ve had breast cancer. It’s a very useful thing to have.”
Ms Graham said she hoped the money put towards the bus would encourage more people to get check for breast cancer.
She said the remaining books would be collected for the Uniting, a charity run in Ballarat.
“They operate the BreezeWay Food Program; that’s food for underprivileged people,” Ms Graham said.
“They make between 80 and 100 hot meals every day for underprivileged people, and they also support Lifeline.
“I felt that that was a very good cause, and he’s coming up to collect the books.
“I think people would be very happy to know that their leftover books are going down to the book fair run down in Ballarat, and that raises money for this good cause. I think people can be proud of what they donated, and hopefully they’ll be pretty happy with the outcome.”
Ms Graham extended her gratitude to those who assisted with moving and organising the book displays for the fair.
“I want to say thank you to a few people; we had half a dozen people or so who have offered their time to give us a hand – lugging books around is a very heavy job, and therefore all the help you can get is very much appreciated,” she said.