Concerns about the spread of coronavirus have caused two huge fundraising book sales planned for early 2022 to be cancelled.
“We hope to reschedule the sale for later in the year and to hold several smaller sales in the coming months,” the Friends of the Hockessin Library Board posted.
“There will be no 2022 [Unionville High School] Book Sale,” a post from the Pennsylvania school’s parent teacher organization read. “Please stay safe and warm and happy reading!”
Both sales are community traditions, going back decades, selling tens of thousands books and related items and generating tens of thousands of dollars for the library and the school.
The Hockessin sale is a fixture at the end of January – the 2022 sale would have been Jan. 27-30 at Hockessin Memorial Hall – while the Unionville sale was a few weeks later at the school.
The Friends of the Hockessin Library Board has decided to cancel the January 2022 Used Book Sale due to the resurgence of Covid cases and the increased transmissibility of the latest strain,” the Friends wrote.
Our sale requires help from many dedicated, loyal volunteers whom we do not wish to put at risk by asking them to work at the sale. We also do not wish to put our patrons at risk. Though masks would be required, and attendance limited, there are aspects of the sale that would make social distancing impossible to manage.”
Those aspects include lines waiting to get in and crowds of book lovers trying to grab books that they wanted to read and book dealers seeking merchandise to sell.
The Unionville sale is the primary fundraiser for the PTO, with the funds used for enrichment projects at the high school. It typically has more than 80,000 books.
Concerns about the spread of coronavirus have caused two huge fundraising book sales planned for early 2022 to be cancelled.
