Tre' Hester, of Shepherdstown, browses through books in the research section of the Legendary Book Sale in the War Memorial Building on Sunday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — For many, Sunday’s arrival marked the beginning of a new week. But, for the Shepherdstown Community Club, it also marked the end of its annual Legendary Book Sale, which was extended this year from a four-day to a 10-day event in the War Memorial Building.

According to SCC President Jennifer Wabnitz, extending the length of the book sale has proven to be a great idea.

“We’ve seen more people, because of being open for a few more days than usual, which was a good thing since we also had more books. During [the COVID-19 Pandemic], people have been stuck at home, so they built up their stockpile. We’ve had a lot of beautiful books donated! We haven’t been able to sell them all this year, but that’s okay — we’ll try again next year,” Wabnitz said, mentioning the larger number of book donations and extended interest shown in last year’s sale were the two reasons for the sale’s new length. “Last year as we were packing everything up, we left the door open, and people kept on coming in and saying, ‘Hey, we’d like to buy some books.’ They still wanted to buy them, even though the sale was over, so they just kept buying!

“So we said, ‘Why don’t we extend it?’ And that turned out really well, because this second weekend was the weekend of Homecoming [at Shepherd University], so we had a lot of extra customers courtesy of that,” Wabnitz said. “It was great — lots of good traffic. Even during the week, we made $500 a day!”

In all, the SCC estimated as of Sunday afternoon that it had made about $17,000 from this year’s sale. As this book sale is the only major fundraiser the SCC holds, other than the Back Alley Garden Tour & Tea, the success of the sale is essential to helping the club care for its two properties: Morgan’s Grove Park and the War Memorial Building.

Fiances Laura Correa, of the Dominican Republic and Wright, of Bethesda, Md., search for books to fill their $5 shopping basket with in the science fiction section at the Legendary Book Sale on Sunday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

“It was 10 long days. But we have such a great group of volunteers!” Wabnitz said, estimating a total of 50 volunteers helped staff the event, organize the books into categories over the three months prior to the sale, move the book shelves into the building and set up the two sales floors in the building — some of whom were SCC members, but others of whom were from the community and Shepherd University at large. “We had the whole girls basketball team come and help me move the books! It was very, very nice of them.”

While the volunteers were busy, SCC member Mike Austin noted that having such a large group helped to make the work “fun.”

“The broader the better — the better the mix makes it fun. If you have too few people, it gets burdensome, it gets tiring. But as long as you can interact and socialize, you enjoy the experience!” Austin said, noting that the hard work was also alleviated by food that had been donated to the event, including lunch for the book sale volunteers on two different days by Ortega’s Taco Shop in Charles Town.

The sale was sponsored by Four Seasons Books and Valley Storage, according to Austin. However, those sponsors were not the only ones to show up at the sale. As the sale was coming to a close on Sunday afternoon, Viking Tree Service’s Tre’ Hester browsed through books in the first floor’s research section.

“My family business is Viking Tree Service and we service a lot of the town trees, including the ones at Morgan’s Grove Park, which we do for free,” Hester said. “This is my third day coming to this sale! I first came with a group of friends. Then I came back on Thursday to find some good books, but then I saw they were doing their $5 sale today, so I waited ’til today to buy anything.”

On Sunday in the War Memorial Building, the Legendary Book Sale's final day, as usual, was a discount day, allowing customers to fill a shopping basket with books for a total of $5. Tabitha Johnston

The $5 per shopping basket of books has been a long-held tradition for the last day of the Legendary Book Sale — one that brought in many bargain book shoppers and reading enthusiasts at this year’s event.

“This is a mistake! We already have too many books — we have no place to put them in between our two places. I don’t know how that’s going to work, but we’re going to try,” said Laura Correa, of the Dominican Republic, who was shopping at the sale with her fiance.