Moravian Church to hold community book sale

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – The Moravian Church, located at 310 1st Ave. S, Wisconsin Rapids, will hold its annual community book sale from Thursday, Oct. 9 through Saturday, Oct. 11. On Thursday and Friday, the sale is open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and there is a bag sale on Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. where shoppers can fill a paper bag for $2.
The sale features various genres of books, games, and movies, with most items priced at $1. All profits fund scholarships for non-traditional students at Mid-State Technical College.
“Maybe a working mom or somebody that’s going back to school,” Book Sale Chairperson Alice Lavin said.
The church also provides free snacks and coffee for people to enjoy as they browse, and coordinates the event with a small committee. The sale typically raises between $1,000 and $3,000. Lavin said last year, they were able to donate more than $1,000 to the scholarship fund.
The book sale was started by the American Association of University Women in 2010, and was taken over by Reverend Beth Rohn-Habhegger with the Moravian Church in 2013.

The church’s book sale committee meets once a month starting March to break down the sale from the year before and make any changes necessary. They recently added the option of gift cards, so shoppers can support the scholarship fund and gift loved ones with the opportunity to browse the options. Gift cards can be purchased by contacting communitybooksale@gmail.com.
The church will offer a wide variety of content, from books of all kinds to movies and board games and even records.
“Every genre you could possibly think of, from religious cookbooks to young adult and fiction hardcovers,” Lavin said. “This year we had one of our local schools cleaning out their library, and they donated a ton of books, mostly children’s books and young adult.”
Volunteers must sort through the donations before the sale begins, and some items are not in suitable condition for sale or are not accepted.
“Readers Digest or magazines are two of the biggest things that we don’t take,” Lavin said.
When the church does receive damaged donations or magazines, they donate what they can to the Wisconsin Rapids Family Center and recycle the unusable items. Whatever isn’t sold is also donated.