AAUW Saginaw Branch sold used books donated by community members. We were at the Saginaw Farmers Market on Fridays from May through September, until quite recently, The funds raised were used for scholarships at SVSU, Delta, and AAUW National. We now only sell books at community sites to assist in raising funds for the two local scholarships that we sponsor.
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- President Kathy Tobin at Downtown Saginaw Farmers Market; AAUW Used Book Sale
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- Members from AAUW-Saginaw Gail, Kathy, Ruth with 2 AAUW-Ann Arbor Members (Sophie Faye &; Yvette Wernick) and Elessa
Fridays at the Farmers’ Market
The little dog on a leash sniffs our ankles, tail wagging, then explores the scents on boxes stored under the picnic table where our books are displayed for sale. His mistress surveys our wares, checks out cookbooks and novels, smiles and moves on. Oh well! Can’t win them all!
Two children search through the boxes of picture books and chapter books while their mom collects a bagful of summer reading. A tall man in tee shirt and jeans selects a biography, looks into the box of military books, then asks whether we accept donations.
Two branch members circulate around the table, answering questions, restoring books to their proper locations, consolidating boxes, and then sit, chatting, in folding chairs at one side until more of the above is needed. And how many of our friends pass by, stop to visit, agree that our project is truly wonderful, buy and donate books, and make our day terrific!
And another bonus: all the exquisite flowers, corn on the cob, jewel-red tomatoes, velvety peaches, super-sweet pears, lettuces, green and yellow beans, beets, pies, coffee cakes. cookies, breads and rolls, information, tee shirts, fragrant homemade soaps, occasionally even music – all surrounding us for three months.
At three o’clock, our angel volunteer, Denny, arrives to move boxes and boxes of books, now mercifully diminished, into a van and back into our storage unit. The storage unit, an inadequate closet loaned to us by Boy Scouts, holds probably a thousand books all sorted into four different displays so that we don’t repeat books until the fifth week.
Book sales are a lot of work, but, for book lovers, gratifying fulfillment…not the least of which is first dibs on the titles we want to read!
—Marion Frahm Tincknell, 2015