By Sue Moore
For the past 21 years, Gail Reisterer and her band of faithful fellow volunteers have accepted gently used books donated to the Vicksburg District Library for its annual book sale on the weekend of the Old Car Festival. Every Tuesday, after playing a little bridge, they meet downstairs and sort through what has been dropped off by donors from outside the library for the book sale.
Reisterer has been heading up this effort because as a teacher she encouraged children to read, especially through her specialty, speech therapy. Her gang of volunteers help to sort by classifying the books and shelving them until the doors open to long lines, this year at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 10 .
These folks are usually avid book collectors who may even resell them on eBay, but that’s OK with the library as it doesn’t have the staff to be dealing with online sales. “We are much better off letting others take the risk and the library having one big event with close to a $3,000 paycheck coming in at the end of the three days,” Reisterer said. Hundreds of books are sold with the emphasis on getting the general public to come in off the street as they are walking by at the car festival on Saturday, June 11. They are usually admiring the old cars that the show attracts and see our book sale sign out in front, she said. And festival-goers can browse in air conditioned comfort.
On the following Monday at 10 a.m., the books left over get cleared out with a special deal of all a shopper can stuff in a grocery bag for $2. The money raised through the book sale goes toward the future purchase of children’s books for the library collection.