Big Brothers Big Sisters of Saint John's August store set up (Image: Elizabeth MacLeod)
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Saint John’s annual BIG book sale will be the organization’s sole major fundraiser in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bowl for Kids Sake, which has been running for nearly forty years and held every April and May, is normally the organization’s largest fundraiser across the country. The Saint John chapter usually averages eighty bowling teams participating across its service areas, from Sussex to Charlotte Country, and raise approximately $150,000 each year. This year the fundraiser was cancelled because of the pandemic.
“Our second biggest fundraiser is our book sale, which we really thought wouldn’t take place this year,” said Laurie Collins, Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Saint John. “We’ve worked with Brunswick Square, and with following all the COVID restrictions we’ve managed to be allowed and are ready to open a bookstore.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters’ 2019 Big Book Sale (Image: BBBS Facebook page)
The biggest change to this year’s book sale is that readers can get their fill of books for the entire month of August.
“It’s going to be a bit different for customers and for us because now we have to limit the number of shoppers in the store at one time where people are normally used to just milling about,” Collins said. “We think it’s going to go well, we think people are excited about it.”
The book sale will be located at a store location on Level 1 of Brunswick Square at the former home of Lil’ Shop of Science. It will also offer online purchases of “grab bags” of books, which can be ordered online with all forms of payment accepted.
The Saint John chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters has operated for 48 years. “We match young people with screened and trained volunteer mentors in a community-based program who are able to meet outside of school so they’re in the community,” said Collins.
Its other major program is its in-school mentoring program, where volunteer mentors who go into schools once a week and are matched with a child.
“Those programs are really about building relationships and teaching kids how to have healthy relationships, what that looks like, and often times the benefits come in the form of improved self-esteem and confidence, improved social skills, social-emotional competence type of things,” she said.
The Big Brothers Big Sisters 15th annual BIG Book Sale runs from August 4-to-28, open Monday to Friday.
