Up to 60,000 books have been donated for this weekend’s Yarragon CFA Book Fair!
This story was first published in our 5 July 2018 edition. Get your free copy from retailers across Baw Baw!
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The annual Yarragon CFA Book Fair fundraiser is on this weekend, and this year the brigade is partnering with Yarragon Primary School.
Money raised from book sales will go toward projects at the Yarragon Fire Station and the school.
“This year we’re going to upgrade the door on the motor room of the station, make it automatic,” Yarragon CFA spokesperson Michael O’Toole told the Baw Baw Citizen.
“The door’s 40 years old so it’s time to replace it.”
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The new door will allow volunteers to get ready to fight fires instead of manually opening a door.
“Yarragon Primary School is planning to use its share to make some furniture for the library, and also to purchase books.”
Volunteers setting up the Yarragon Public Hall on Monday ahead of the weekend’s book fair. Photos by author.
The long-running event has become known for attracting people from far and wide, with super-low prices and a huge range available. Michael estimates the number of books donated for this year’s fair at between 50,000 and 60,000. That’s enough to fill a shipping container, shed, and half the brigade’s meeting room with jam-packed boxes of books.
Paperbacks sell for $1, and hardbacks for $2.50. Cooking, craft, gardening, kids’, self help, and teen novels all sell for $5 per bag.
As usual, this weekend’s event will be held at the Yarragon Public Hall.
Officially, doors open at 9am on both days and close at 5pm on Saturday and 4pm on Sunday. But the volunteers are happy to be flexible.
“We usually have a queue down to the post office before we open on Saturday morning. If there’s a line out there by 8.30am, we’ll open the doors early and let them in,” Michael said.
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