Helping hands: AAUW State College Used Book Sale set to return after long hiatus

After a long hiatus, AAUW State College is so pleased to announce that we will be hosting our 59th annual Used Book Sale on Oct. 9-12 at the Penn State Agricultural Arena. Like so many other organizations whose fundraisers were affected by the pandemic, it’s been a long and winding road to get to this point, but we are excited to welcome the community back to our sale and once again raise money for Centre County nonprofits and scholarships for women.

As many readers are aware, we couldn’t host our sale last year and instead had to sell most of our 2020 collection in bulk to a book dealer, which allowed us to offset the administrative costs of the sale, including our workshop lease and insurance, for another year. Selling our books last year was a critical decision to keep our operation alive so that revenue from this year’s sale could continue to financially support community-based programs, post-secondary scholarships for local women, STEM programs for young women and girls, and public policy programming on important issues.

Now, we’ve regrouped, reorganized, and re-committed to hosting this year’s sale, collecting, sorting and pricing over 3,700 boxes of fiction and non-fiction hardcovers and paperbacks, children’s books, CDs and DVDs, puzzles, games, and more in preparation for this year’s sale! In other big news, we’ll also be accepting credit cards for all four days of the sale, which we hope will make the buying experience more convenient for our community.

We are not open for donations at this time, but we will reopen for donations for the May 2022 sale starting Tuesday, Oct. 26 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at our new workshop, 2197 High Tech Drive, State College (behind Handy Delivery and across from the University Park Airport). Regular hours will resume weekly on Mondays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon.

While we prefer collecting donations during these times, bins also are available outside the workshop by the loading dock during off-hours. Please consult our website (http://www.aauwstatecollege.org/booksale/donations.html) for more information about books that we can’t accept.

Thanks to our members, volunteers, and community for your patience while we worked through the challenges of the past year. It’s been a roller coaster, but we’ve never lost sight of our mission to support and advance equity for women. If this is a mission that you can get behind, or if you just love books and want more information about this year’s Used Book Sale, learn more at AAUWstatecollege.org.

This story was originally published September 29, 2021 at 5:00 AM.