With retirement on the horizon, Pastors Dick Weaver and Cathy Barker of Plymouth UCC in Helena needed to cull books from their personal library. Other members at Plymouth UCC nodded sympathetically and the idea was forged to have a used book sale! The proceeds were designated for Plymouth and Intermountain. The date was set well in advance so people had plenty of time to gather books and music to donate, and a spot was designated for drop-offs over several weeks’ time.
Publicity went out by email, Facebook, posters, an article & ad in the paper, and word of mouth. The day before the sale, seven people had a delightful time sorting books onto tables and displaying the music. The price list came from Central Christian Church in Billings which is famous for their enormous book sales.
Traffic was steady on the Saturday of the sale, when a soup and bread lunch was served for $5 from 11 to 1:00. The time between services Sunday morning saw another lunch and lively sales. So many books were left that the congregation deemed it worthwhile to run the sale again the next Saturday. The final Sunday everything was “make an offer”.
Remaining books were distributed among helping agencies and the library. The total take was close to $1000, with expenditures of less than $100 (for publicity). The dozen volunteers who made it happen all had a great time, and went home with piles of reading material!
At Intermountain, we appreciate the efforts of our many supporting churches and for the creativity they show in just how they go about raising their support. A special thanks goes out to the wonderful congregation of Plymouth UCC (http://www.plymouthmontana.org/) for all their hard work to make for a very successful book sale.
Click here to subscribe to our RSS feed with your favorite email client and be alerted to new articles.