Funds go toward literacy programs
Times Colonist: 2008 February 25
JUDITH LAVOIETimes Colonistjlavoie@tc.canwest.com
Times Colonist has cracked the $ 1- million mark.
The weekend sale, which raised a record $180,030 for education and literacy projects in the community, boosted sales figures over the past 11 years to a total of $1,103,185.
“ We were really keeping our fingers crossed. We were pretty sure we could do it,” said promotions Times Colonist manager Kathy Baan.
When the book sale started in 1998 it raised $ 21,800 and numbers have risen steadily every year since. It is part of Canwest’s national Raise- aReader Campaign.
More than 600,000 books were on sale this year as crowds crammed into the former NOW Furniture store on Douglas Street, donated for the event by John Asfar of the Traveller’s Inn.
Karen and Robert Mowat make the sale an annual tradition. “ I make a list before we come down or I can’t remember what it is we want. My memory’s not so hot. In fact, now I can’t remember where I put my list,” said Karen Mowat, as she sat in a chair poring over her finds, which included a hefty tome on healing plants, fishing books and westerns.
Zosia Lacz was looking for books about the man who saved her mother’s life — Lt.-Gen. Wladyslaw Anders, a Polish general in the Second World War. Toward the end of the war, Anders disobeyed orders and led Polish women and children out of Siberian labour camps, knowing they would die if they were left behind.
“One of them was my mother, so I owe my life to him,” Lacz said. Times Colonist publisher Bob McKenzie said the event’s sponsors and its 300 volunteers deserve a huge vote of thanks. “This sale wouldn’t be possible without their support,” he said.
Today, teachers and nonprofit groups can collect as many books as they want, for free. The remaining books will go to a wholesaler.
Application forms for grants from book sale proceeds will be issued in April.
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