By Mike Finney

CAMDEN — Kent County has become somewhat of a bookstore desert over the past several years.

The Camden-Wyoming Lions Club is hoping to fill that void — at least for nine days — as it will conduct a book sale at the Whatcoat United Methodist Church at 16 N. Main St. in Camden from May 24 until June 1.

Proceeds from the will raise money for the organization’s Caesar Rodney High School scholarship program. The Lions Club will accept cash, checks and credit cards for book purchases.

Patrick Analore, vice president of the Camden Wyoming Lions Club, said they looked at different ways they could raise funds and decided on book sales since there is such a dearth of bookstores in Kent County.

“We’ve collected about 25,000 books at this point, and CDs and DVDs that we’re going to be selling,” Mr. Analore said.

“The books are all donated from the community that we’ve been collecting. So that’s another nice part of the story. It’s all donations from the community members and everything’s priced cheap — like two for a buck or a couple of dollars.”

The Lions Club had to make some adjustments to its annual fundraiser after the pandemic hit.

“We’ve been giving away scholarships for years for Caesar Rodney students,” said Mr. Analore. “We used to go out to Fifer’s Orchards. We had a food trailer and that’s where we would make all of our money, but when COVID hit, obviously we weren’t able to do that anymore.

“We had to find a new way to raise money.”

The Lions Club had its first book sale scholarship fundraiser last year and, despite not being sure as to how it would go, its members raised $6,000 in scholarship money.

“We only had it for a few days (last year), so this year we’re going nine days, which will put it over two weekends for us,” Mr. Analore said. “We’re hoping to make $20,000 this year.

“Last year we gave out six scholarships by the time we were done. This year, we hope to give out more — and bigger — scholarships, as well. All our proceeds are going towards the scholarships. Some are need-based, some are academic.”

The Camden Wyoming Lions Clubs has a scholarship called the “Michael Webb Scholarship” that is for students involved in Future Farmers of America who are planning on going into some kind of agricultural- or animal-related field.

It also has a medical scholarship for students who are going into nursing or medical school, and some general scholarships as well.

The nine-day book sale will wrap up with a big event, which will help the Lions Club clean out its inventory, as well as raise more money for students.

“On Saturday, June 1, we’re doing a bag sale where people can buy books by the bag,” said Mr. Analore. “That just helps us to kind of clean up at the end. I’m sure we’re going to have quite a few books left at the end. So this will not only help us out, but will be good for avid readers as well.”

Staff writer Mike Finney can be reached at 302-741-8230 or mfinney@iniusa.org.
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