OTTUMWA, IOWA (KTVO) \u2014 The Pages for Pennies book sale in Ottumwa has been a hit for readers and collectors since 2012. It\u2019s a great way to get a lot of books for cheap. But, where does that money go after the book fair ends? It helps fund more than just the library.<\/p>\n
For more than 10 years, the Ottumwa Public Library has partnered with community organizations to bring a huge second-hand book sale to the city after its previous annual book sale stopped operations. Library Director Sonja Ferrell says it\u2019s a bit like thrift shopping.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t know what you came in to get, because you walk out with more books than you thought you would,” Sonja said.<\/p>\n
Cook books, mystery novels, DVDs \u2013 even after sending worn-out books to recycling – the book sale’s got a lot in stock.<\/p>\n
The sale generates thousands for the community each year – not just for new library books – but also pays for activities, special guest speakers, and other reading programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always like to say the city pays for the bricks and mortar and the staffing, and the friends and all the supportive organizations in the community pay for the cherry on top of all those services,” Sonja said.<\/p>\n
However, the library isn\u2019t the only organization to benefit–it’s also a big draw for tourism.<\/p>\n
Meet Ottumwa helps market, promote, and set up the even–using a cut of the profits to promote the town to more visitors nationwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we have events like Pages for Pennies that\u2019s going over an extended period of time, we\u2019re bringing in people from outside of the community to spend their money here. That is a relief for our own residents, because that money coming in is paying for things within the community,” said Laura Carrell, Executive Director of Meet Ottumwa.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also a great way to help instill a love of reading in local residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see a family come in that was just like my family, and the kid is sitting under the table reading a book while mom shops, that touches my heart. All of the work that we do to gather and sort and get stuff boxed and taken downstairs\u2013all of that is totally worth it when you see how excited somebody is to have a book in their hand,” Laura said.<\/p>\n
And, on the off chance you don\u2019t leave with a book, you might leave with something even more valuable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just the conversations that happen amongst the people\u2013since I was new to town 14 years ago, some of my closest friends are people I see at the book sale, because that\u2019s where we met,” Sonja said.<\/p>\n
Pages for Pennies starts on Sept. 26 and goes through the 28 at the Bridge View Center in Ottumwa. The Center also receives some of the funds raised from the sale. You don\u2019t need to pay to get in. The organizers will continue to accept gently used books, games, puzzles and DVDs starting Aug. 25. Contact the library for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTUMWA, IOWA (KTVO) \u2014 The Pages for Pennies book sale in Ottumwa has been a hit for readers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":138160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,82790,718,171,12735,3716,82791,82793,82792,5331,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-138159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-booksale","10":"tag-community","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-fundraising","13":"tag-library","14":"tag-ottumwa","15":"tag-pages-for-pennies","16":"tag-reading-programs","17":"tag-tourism","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115012711687874445","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}