THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2008

---

'Friends' Book Sale Raises Over $8,800

The Friends of the Mt. Prospect Library raised $8,847 from its annual Spring Book Sale that was held this past weekend---the second largest amount ever.

"It went very well and we were so close to the record," said President of the Friends of the Mt. Prospect Library George Luteri. "We had no complaints and we were busy all three days. We were a bit concerned some people weren't going to show up on Sunday, because of the nice weather, but we were still busy."

According to Luteri, the record sales event occurred in the fall of 2005, when $9,336 was raised.

"It takes about 60-70 volunteers to make a sale happen, from book sorters to cashiers and volunteers to moving and setting up the rooms," said Luteri.

The sale was open to the public all day Saturday and Sunday. In addition, the sale opened last Friday to members of the Friends organization only.The sale featured books, magazines, videos, CD's and DVD's and children's books.

Luteri said approximately $4,200 was raised in the first two hours of the sale on Friday. He also said approximately 12,000-15,000 books were for sale at an average cost of $1 a book.

Proceeds from the sale are used to purchase artwork to display in the library and continue numerous library-sponsored programs.

According to Luteri, the Friends are currently on track to donate about $30,000 to the library this year. Through 2007, Friends of the Library have donated $431,147 to the library.

The book sales occur four times a year. The first one was conducted in January, the second one was this past weekend and the other two will occur in July and October.