2008 Book Fair Wrap-Up

The Monroe County Chapter in Bloomington, Indiana held its 25th Annual Red Cross Book Fair Oct. 2-7, 2008 at the Monroe County Fairgrounds. Hundreds of volunteers, among them board members, disaster services volunteers, student groups, community volunteers, book fair leadership volunteers and staff were on hand to sell 80,000- 100,000 gently used books, records, games & puzzles, DVDs and CDs of every category and description. Bolstered by the weekend’s moderate temperatures and great weather 4,500 patrons came by to browse, shop and buy wonderful books for themselves and their families. The result was a record-breaking book fair fundraiser for the chapter, with over $69,168 raised for mission activities in Monroe and Owen Counties, an increase of $15,032 over last year’s event. In addition to our loyal patrons who look forward to the sale every year, we are indebted to over 300 volunteers and staff who made the magic happen over the past year by sorting and packing books, organizing, and setting up, staffing and tearing down afterwards at the fairgrounds.

Check Out Our Special Edition Book Fair News Letter!

Please click the link below:

http://www.monroe-redcross.org/downloads/crosstalk/08RedCrossBookFairNewsletter.pdf

Volunteer Sign-up for the 25th Annual Book Fair

We're accepting volunteer sign up now for help with set up and staffing of our 25th Annual Book Fair at the Monroe County Fairgrounds, Commercial Building West, Bloomington, Indiana. Due to the generosity of the Bloomington community that donates books and other media throughout the year to our Red Cross, we will offer over 80,000 Used Books, LPs, Tapes, DVDs, Games & Puzzles at our annual book fair to be held October 2 through 7, 2008. We need a crew of able bodied helpers from Friday, Sept. 26 through Wednesday, October 1st, to help unload boxes of books and set up tables and bookcases at the Monroe County Fairgrounds. We also offer many volunteer opportunities during the event and afterwards during tear-down. This is a perfect opportunity for employee and business groups, fraternities and sororities, students, clubs, and young and old alike to pitch in to help the Red Cross put on its signature fund raiser of the year. Last year over 3,400 book fair patrons found fantastic bargains at the Red Cross Book Fair, so please mark the date and be a part of it this year! Proceeds from this event help fund local disaster relief, service to US armed forces and their families, and emergency preparedness services we provide throughout the year in Monroe and Owen Counties. For more information, or to sign up for this volunteer opportunity, visit us on the web at www.monroe-redcross.org, contact the Monroe County Chapter of the American Red Cross at 332-7292, or email


jtaylor@monroe-redcross.org.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by Borders Books in Eastland Plaza on Saturday (7-19) to donate books and other media for our big Book Fair this October. It was beastly hot, but all our volunteers did a wonderful job helping out. Our newest volunteer group came out in a big way—Thank you, Daughters of the Bloomington Revolution, (DBR) for doing such a great work for the Red Cross. Thanks also to June Taylor, volunteer coordinator, and our book fair volunteers: Anne, Barb, Bobbie, Don, Karen, Pat, Joan, Rosemary, Conor & Caroline. Thank you to county corrections for dropping off road crew to help getting all the boxes into the basement at our Chapter House. This past week we got an entire U-Haul full of books donated, so between that and the Borders book drop-off which yielded four loads of books, our volunteers should be busy for quite a while. By the time we get ready to set up the last week of September we should have three tractor trailers full of books, and maybe more!

Stop by our booth at the Monroe County Fair this week—we’re offering $1 books to patrons who stop by and see us!

Sue Gulley
Executive Director

Book Drop Off at Borders July 19th

Borders Books & Music and WFIU are hosting a book drop-off to benefit the Monroe County Chapter of the American Red Cross on Saturday, July 19 from 9:00am - 12:00 noon in front of Borders, 2634 E. 3rd St. The Red Cross is collecting gently used books, CDs, LPs, DVDs, video tapes, maps, sheet music, games and puzzles for its annual Book Fair to be held this year on Oct. 2-7, 2008. Donors are asked to please bring items in boxes if possible.

A Day At The Book Fair

Read this first hand account of a satisfied 2006 American Red Cross Monroe County Chapter Book Fair patron.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/10/19/090013.php

Feel free to comment and post your own experiences on the blog!

Collectible Books Available At The Book Fair

The 2008 American Red Cross Book Fair will offer several genres of books including children's, literature, sports and history. The Book Fair will also be selling dozens of premium collectible books. Just a few of the available collecibles include Peter and Wendy, The Song of Hiawatha, an autographed copy of I Love Being The Enemy by Reggie Miller, A Little Boy Lost and the series A Picturesque Tale of Progress. See pictures of the aforementioned titles on the left side of the Blog.

Collectible books have been appraised and range from $7.50 to $100.