ALTHOUGH normally run twice a year in March and November, Ballarat\u2019s Biggest Book Fair is returning early as part of a one-day clearance sale next month.<\/p>\n
Novels will be the focus of the event set for St Andrew\u2019s Church Hall, with each book priced $1.<\/p>\n
Proceeds will go towards the fair\u2019s regular beneficiaries, Uniting\u2019s BreezeWay meals program and Lifeline.<\/p>\n
Despite selling roughly $15,000 worth of books and more than 1000 people through the doors in March, fair organiser Alan Hinton said the team of 10 have more novels than they can handle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got miles too many novels,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to clear them and that\u2019s what we\u2019re working towards with this.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did this once as a one-day sale about five years ago and it was relatively successful. We took about $2000 from that sale which was pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Hinton said the book sale raises more than $30,000 a year with items sourced mainly through donations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re well-known now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe get our books from here, there, and everywhere, usually from donations through family estates and things like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got about three times the amount of novels we\u2019d normally handle and it just keeps coming. It\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 5000 books will be on offer at the event.<\/p>\n
The fair normally features paperback books at $2 and hardbacks at $3 as well as CDs, records, bric-a-brac, and coffee-table reads and special items up to $20.<\/p>\n
Sixty per cent of profits are sent to the BreezeWay program with the rest donated to Lifeline.<\/p>\n
Mr Hinton said the demand is greater than ever between the fair and its main fundraising recipient.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe BreezeWay program at the moment is under stress,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere they were doing some 50, 60 meals a day, they\u2019re doing 80, 90 a day now for people in need.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a lot of food to make so there\u2019s especially a need for this. It\u2019s not necessarily people from the street we feed. We also feed people under financial stress who can barely afford to pay their rent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The one-off book fair clearance will run from 9am to 3pm on Saturday 8 July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ALTHOUGH normally run twice a year in March and November, Ballarat\u2019s Biggest Book Fair is returning early as part of a one-day clearance sale next month. Novels will be the focus of the event set for St Andrew\u2019s Church Hall, with each book priced $1. Proceeds will go towards the fair\u2019s regular beneficiaries, Uniting\u2019s BreezeWay […]<\/p>\n