Crowds go buy the book(s)

By SEAN BARRON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
BOARDMAN -- Want to play a little more like Tiger Woods?
For $2, you can buy "How to Become a Complete Golfer" by Bob Toski and Jim Flick, which offers numerous tips to get more out of your five-iron, and spend more time on the green and less in the sand.
Or perhaps you're more the type who likes to read about your favorite celebrities. For less than $10, "Sunday Nights at Seven," "Don't Block the Blessings" and "I Think I'm Outta Here," can be yours. The three pieces of nonfiction provide glimpses into the lives of comic Jack Benny, singer Patti LaBelle and actor Carroll O'Connor.
Normally, those books would cost at least $20 apiece, but are available for drastically reduced amounts. Paperbacks sell for 25 cents.
These are a fraction of the approximately 50,000 hardbacks and paperbacks available to the thousands of customers who continue to attend the three-day, 50th annual used book sale that kicked off Wednesday at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 119 Stadium Drive, and wraps up at 7 p.m. Friday.
The sale, sponsored by the Westminster Women's Association, occupies several rooms in the church and offers numerous books in dozens of categories as well as magazines, jigsaw puzzles and other merchandise. Also on hand are a variety of encyclopedias, dictionaries, medical books and other reference materials.
Many people such as David Sanders of Youngstown, who visited the sale Wednesday, bought about 100 books. Sanders, 52, said he's been to about 35 of the book sales, beginning when he was about age 10.
The Rev. Joel Parkinson of Covenant Bible Church in Alliance said he came seeking books on theology to add to his church's library, and that those he can't use, he sells online. The Rev. Mr. Parkinson said he's attended five or six book sales at Westminster.
How it all began
Jan Pickens, a 33-year volunteer for the event, said the idea began in 1956 when Hazel Thorne, a local woman, went to a club in Princetown, N.J., and brought back the idea of having an annual book sale. The sales took place in a church in downtown Youngstown before moving to Westminster in the 1960s, Pickens recalled.
Materials are donated by community members who leave many of the books on the church's lower porch. Others are picked up, she added.
"I don't think there's anything we don't keep," Pickens said.
Items that don't sell at the three-day sale never go to waste, she noted. Starting this year, the Mahoning County Green Team will collect some discarded materials, and others are given to Youngstown State University's Maag Library to sell to students, Pickends continued.
"At the end of the sale, we save nothing; for next year, we start fresh," she said.
Reason for success
Pickens attributed the event's success and longevity to maintaining reasonable prices and using many of the proceeds to fund mission work and give back to the area. Some of the money raised at the sale will go toward sending 18 people on a seven-day mission trip to Gautier, Miss., to help rebuild several homes damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
Pickens praised the 50 volunteers who, among other things, worked at checkout tables, displayed books and assisted customers.
On Friday, people will be able to save even more when merchandise will be marked half off. Beginning at 4 p.m. that day, customers can fill a bag for $1.
"The Lord has blessed us with people who come back every year," she said.