By TESA CULLI
tesa.culli@register-news.com
MT. VERNON — The Downtown Mt. Vernon Development Corporation is looking for volunteers who love books — and love to sort them.
“We’re now meeting every Thursday to sort book and all kinds of media that have been donated so far for the Book Fair,” DMDC Promotions Committee Chairman Bonnie Jerdon said. “There’s some really cool stuff, and sorting it, for me, is a really good time because I love books.”
The DMDC Book Fair will be held on April 16 and 17 with a preview event the evening before the fair officially opens at the Granada Center for the Performing Arts. The fundraising event will help the DMDC raise funds for its streetscape program, and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Granada as well.
Residents have been asked to donate their used books as well as CDs, DVDs, tapes and VHS tapes for the event, and there are drop boxes located throughout the community including City Hall, Community First Bank, Crossroads Community Hospital, the DMDC office, Dish on the Square, US Bank and the Municipal Building West Visitors Center.
“You wouldn’t believe some of the books we have received so far,” Jerdon said. “There is a little bit of everything. We have received recipe and cook books, lots of hobby books, there are a lot of current novels in hardback and paperback, there’s even a Law Library and a Harlequin Golden Library. There’s a lot of great reading.”
At this time, Jerdon said there has been some preliminary sorting done of the donations, separating out the paperbacks from hard back books, then in categories of fiction and non-fiction.
“We’re broadly sorting first, then categorize them further,” Jerdon explained.
Anyone who would like to help with the project may contact Jerdon at 242-3151, DMDC Executive Director Cyndy Mitchell at 242-6866 or show up at Data Lock, where the books are being stored, at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday.
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DMDC seeking volunteers for book fair
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