Gearing Up: 5 Colleges Book Sale
Looking to volunteer, perhaps?
It’s near impossible to remember a time without the annual Five Colleges Book Sale, the recent pandemic years notwithstanding. That’s because this Upper Valley stalwart has been collecting and selling books to raise money for college scholarships for Vermont and New Hampshire students since 1962. According to Chair Natalie Golden, it’s the longest running book sale in the Northeast.
Natalie provided a capsule history—previously unknown to me—of how the sale came to be and how it has continued to expand, outgrowing each earlier location.
The book sale started in 1962. The wife of Dartmouth College’s President and four of her friends wanted to do something during mud season. They decided to run a charity book sale with the proceeds going to their alma maters: Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Vassar, and Simmons. The donated books were sorted in the basement of the President’s house. The sale was held in one room of College Hall (now Collis). . . Each of the 5 Colleges received $335 for scholarships to students from NH or VT.
From 1962 until 1986, the sale was on the Dartmouth campus in various buildings with increasing square footage. In 1987, the sale moved to the Hanover High School and Middle School gyms when the volume of donated books was too large to be held in Dartmouth’s Alumni Gym. The sale continued to grow and by 2005 the Hanover gym and adjacent areas were no longer big enough. In 2006, the sale was held at its current location: the Lebanon High School. We use the gym, the cafeteria, three classrooms, and one hallway . . . This decreased the crowding of customers during the sale. We moved the sale back to Lebanon High School last year [following its absence during three COVID years] and will be there again this year.
Natalie has been involved in the sale for the past twenty-five years; last year was her first as chair. “The sale is very important to me. I could not have attended Wellesley College without scholarships. This is my way to pay that forward.” But she and the cohort of long-term volunteers need your help. Over time, some volunteers have moved or drifted away; many did not return after the three-year COVID-related absence.
“We are in need of younger volunteers who can lift and move boxes of books,” Natalie observed, as well as people to accept, dust, price and categorize the donations. Signage is needed for the sale and for the individual tables. During the sale itself, volunteers set up tables, unpack and arrange books, direct customers, act as cashiers. To volunteer, send an email to 5collegesbooksale@gmail.com. They will find just the right spot for you.
“We have found some fascinating things in the books and boxes: a Confederate $100 bill, a set of old dominos in a wooden box, an autograph from Thomas Edison, and paper dolls of the Clinton family (during their time in the White House).”
The Details:
SALE at Lebanon High School
Friday, April 18, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Saturday, April 19, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Sunday, April 20, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. – Half-price day
Donations will be accepted from March 2 (Sun) until March 30 (Sun).
Fun numbers:
The 5 Colleges—Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Vassar, and Simmons—are about to include a 6th, which will be a to-be-determined college in either Vermont or New Hampshire that will alternate from year to year.
Since its inception, the sale has raised over 2 million dollars in scholarship money for the 5 colleges.
Last year, the sale contained over 40,000 books, transported in 2,500 boxes and displayed on 220 tables.
WHERE, OH WHERE? Five Colleges Book Sale is still looking for a donation site, finding it a difficult task due to lack of available commercial space. They hope to have secured a spot soon and will post the info on their website and Facebook page. Meanwhile, it is never too early to browse your own bookshelves and that teetering stack next to your nightstand for possible donations.
Happy Valentine’s Day to book lovers everywhere!
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.