Lorraine Smart from Havelock North picked up half-a-dozen great jigsaws - but a seventh one caught her eye on the way to the checkout. Photo / Paul Taylor
Lorraine Smart from Havelock North picked up half-a-dozen great jigsaws - but a seventh one caught her eye on the way to the checkout. Photo / Paul Taylor
When the Hastings Lions Club crew arrived on Saturday to open the doors to this year's 27th annual Mammoth Book Sale, they discovered that an early battalion of customers had beaten them to it.
"The queue at the gates was more than 400 - they were lined up waiting toget to their favourite sections," convenor and long-time Hastings Lions stalwart Alan Harvey said.
At the head of the queue was a familiar face.
"The first person in the queue is always this chap who is looking for war books and they are down the far end from the entrance - so he makes a bit of a dash for it."
By the end of the weekend, about 3000 people had been through the grandstand hall at the Hawke's Bay Showgrounds where the sale was staged and the Lions volunteers were delighted with the results.
"We took about $27,000 on Saturday," Mr Harvey said, adding that while Sunday was always traditionally a quieter sale day (with the best of the bargains usually snapped up), the final tally was likely to nudge around $33,000.
Among the estimated 80,000 books, magazines, CDs, records and jigsaw puzzles were a few rarities which left several browsers smiling, he said.
About $12,500 will go toward finishing off a $50,000 refurbishment of one of the rooms at Ronald McDonald House in Wellington which has been a focus of the club.
