Our Soroptimist Charity Bookstall on Sunday 16 Jul was another great success raising more than £200 for the St Albans and Hertsmere Women’s Refuge sahwr.org.uk and meant that hundreds of books were recycled to new homes!
The Harpenden Sustainability Market is held on Harpenden Common, close to the town centre, on the Third Sunday of March, May, July, Sept, and Nov.
Sarah Lichman (pictured in the pink) organised the event with the Club’s Planet Team and we had lots of helpers on the day – pictured 
above l to r on the “early shift” with Sarah are Helen Byrne, Diana Kingham, Denise Powell and Jane Slatter. Thanks also to Anna Barrett, and Nicky Bloom and her daughter who were on the later shifts. Nicky’s daughter does a brilliant job selling the children’s books. A big thanks to Harpenden Lion, John Powell who set up and dismantled the gazebo and to the Harpenden Lions for lending it to us! Adult fiction books were sorted into alphabetical order ahead of the event (thanks to those helpers too!). We sell them for £1 each and 3 for £2. The children’s books were sorted by age and were 50p each.
The Sustainability Market had stalls with ideas and products to help protect our environment and provides a great networking opportunity. We met lots of generous and kind people on the day and enjoyed ourselves, as well as raising much needed funds for the Refuge. The weather had been horrendous the day before so it had put some stall holders off – in the end the weather was kind to us on the day and the rain stayed off until we were on our way home. The July date was good because customers said they were buying some holiday reading, so it was good to hear that our plan had worked.
What happens to all the books after the bookstall? John is able to scan book codes and sell higher value books separately. All the books that were left over were taken by Sarah and John to the Lions charity bookshop in the Marlowes Hemel Hempstead https://lionsbookshop.org/. More good news is that any books that are deemed unsaleable are pulped and that raises money for the Lions charities – recycling at it’s best!
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