After moving books from one location to the next, and being on the hunt for a permanent location in the past year, ROC (Recreational Opportunities for Children) Eastman is finally settling in.
Steph McLean, development coordinator and family recreation practitioner at ROC Eastman, is excited to share some news.
“We're doing our first book fair of 2023, but it's also our first book fair in our new space, and it's been almost a year since we've been able to hold one,”
McLean expresses her excitement for their new permanent space that she can call “home.”
“Our new space offers an entire section that is just a bookstore, which we've never been able to do before,” McLean says. “To be able to have the space and the ability to set up long-term also makes our books there a lot more accessible. It makes everything a lot more organized. We have the time and the space to be able to do all those extra things that we haven't been able to do before,”
She adds that this allows them to organize their books by genre and alphabetically, making it easier for customers coming in. With that, they look forward to “get the ball rolling.”
“Now we never have to take things down. In the past, when the book fair was in the mall, you'd have it set up for a weekend. That's a lot of work to haul all those books out and a lot of work to haul them back in, so we only could do it twice a year. Here, we have the ability to do it up to four times a year, so we're super excited to be able to start this new process and be able to have more volunteers and welcome more customers more often,” McLean says.
Adult and teen books are priced at $3, while children’s books are $1 each. Puzzles and games can also be purchased for $5 and under.
Their mandate of breaking barriers extends beyond providing opportunities for children. They believe that it’s important to also keep books accessible and affordable.
“We know that there are so many people that can't go to a bookstore, they can't afford new books. They can't go online and just order a book when they want to read. If we can offer them at a lower cost, make it more accessible to people to be able to purchase more than just one book when they walk in the door, it also raises more money. It's amazing that we can offer things at a nice low price because more people can access those books to read too,” McLean explains.
Their first book fair of 2023 will be on Friday, January 27 from 4 PM to 8 PM, Saturday, January 28 from 10 AM to 5 PM and Sunday, January 29 from 1 PM to 5 PM. They are located at 9-110 Industrial Rd.
“It's a fundraiser for our charity so it's a win-win for everybody," McLean says. "Come grab some books and support some amazing kids at the same time.”
With files from Dave Anthony.