By Karl Streckewald, Executive Committee Member, Governor Pinchot Group
For the past couple of years, my wife, Ginny Streckewald, has coordinated the used book sales at the George and Hettie Love Library, a local branch of the Dauphin County Library System. The library receives thousands of used book donations every year and sells them at book sales. Along with bringing in funds for the Friends of Love Library, the book sales also distribute books to the community at a very affordable price.
A special effort is made at the book sales to get books in the hands of children by offering five free children’s books for every child that comes to a book sale. Giving free books to children in the community has been very rewarding. Although children can check out books any time they visit the library, a book they actually own is special and the child is more likely to read it.
Despite selling hundreds of books and giving many books to the children at each book sale, the library still receives many more books than it currently distributes. That means at the end of the book sales, the library locates non-profits that will take the leftover books (no one wants to throw out a perfectly good book).
Several times a year, the Governor Pinchot Group of the Sierra Club has a table at various events to promote the Sierra Club. We have posters and information on various environmental topics and have personnel available to discuss and answer questions about the Sierra Club. This year, the group tabled at Silver Academy STEM Night, New Cumberland Earth & Arts Festival, Wildwood Park's Wetlands Festival, York County Pride, PrideFest of Central PA, and Kipona in Harrisburg.
While tabling earlier in the year, I was thinking about what would attract more people to our display. Giving away some of the extra children’s books from the library book sales came to mind. This would give us a chance to talk to the children and their parents about the Sierra Club, and it would give children a book on a topic they are interested in, as well as getting them started as lifelong environmentalists.
I spoke to my wife and other members of the Love Friends and they agreed to let me go through the donated children’s books and select those that I felt appropriate for the Sierra Club to give out. These books are mostly nonfiction and include various topics (animals, volcanoes, weather, trees and other plants, insects, etc). I quickly came up with about 60 books that I brought to and gave away at the Wildwood Wetlands Festival.
Since then, our group has given away additional books at our tabling at Pridefest of Central PA and Kipona in Harrisburg for a total of about 250 books. All parties feel it is a success: our members who do tabling feel it’s another tool to bring more people to the table and we can speak to the parents about the Sierra Club while a child is selecting their book; the library likes it because it gets books in the hands of children, and the children like it because it allows them to select books on topics they are interested in.
We expect to continue this program. It requires a little space in our tabling location and a little time selecting the books (although the Love Friends have put a box in their sorting room for Sierra Club-type books when they come across them). Many other libraries have book sales with donated books, so anyone interested in starting a similar program can probably get started by speaking to their local library.
This blog was included as part of the February 2025 Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!