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Legendary Book Sale raises over $9,000 for Shepherdstown Community Club

By Staff | Oct 19, 2018

Janet Lucia, of New Market, Maryland, checks out some of the books at the Shepherdstown Community Club's Legendary Book Sale on Friday afternoon. Lucia and her husband have come to Shepherdstown for the last six y. Photo by Tabitha Johnston.

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Every year, the Shepherdstown Community Club’s Legendary Book Sale draws crowds, and this year was no different.

The sale, which sells community-donated gently used books for low prices, has become known both locally and throughout the region as a place where book lovers of all interests can find a wide selection of reading material over the second weekend in October.

“We come here from New Market, Maryland to this book sale every year, because it’s ‘legendary,'” said Janet Lucia about herself and her husband, with a laugh. “Six years ago, we heard about it in our newspaper. There’s another one we go to every year in Burkittsville, Maryland, but this one’s bigger, and a great place to find Christmas gifts. So many of them are in brand-new condition.”

Some former community members also found themselves back in town during the sale, including SCC President Emeritus Tom Huddleston and his wife, Shirley Huddleston.

“We come back every year to help out with the book sale, because Tom’s still on the board — he’s president emeritus,” Shirley said. “We like the people, we love the town and we love this organization.”

Along with many visitors coming to the book sale, community members also patronized the event, including Four Seasons Books’ owner Kendra Adkins, who selected several bags full of books for her store and her own personal collection.

“I was just here earlier, and I bought two bags of books for the store, and now Im looking for books for my own personal collection,” Adkins said, as she paged through cookbooks on the second story of the building. “I look forward to this weekend every single year — this is my absolute favorite book sale event. This is a great service they are doing for our community. I think it encourages literacy, because a lot of the books they have left over, they donate.”

According to SCC President Mike Austin, the book sale had about 25,000 books in it, and is an important revenue event for the club, helping the club care for the War Memorial Building and Morgan’s Grove Park.

“This year, the SCC generated well over $9,000 in revenue, which included income from thoughtful donations as well as book sales. The club estimated that they sold approximately one-third of the books and related materials provided by the community over the past year,” Austin said, mentioning a large number of books, reference materials and periodicals were given away after the event. These books were donated to Zion Episcopal Church in Charles Town’s book sale, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and other community organizations in need of books.

Even though the sale is recently finished, the SCC will soon be ready to begin preparing for next year’s sale, according to Austin.

“After pausing to catch their breath, the many dedicated volunteers will again be gladly receiving or picking up books after the first of November,” Austin wrote in an email on Monday morning.

To donate to next year’s book sale, contact the SCC at 304-876-3323, or visit shepherdstowncc.org.