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Boardman Center Middle School organizes used book sale
By Bruce Walton
Boardman
The Boardman Center Middle School gym transformed into a library Wednesday with a diverse selection of thousands of books set up on tables and shelves, for both students and community members to peruse and buy.
Since February, students, their families, teachers and others have donated volumes of books for the used-book sale.
Wednesday marked the beginning of the school’s sale, which will continue today and Friday from noon to 6 p.m.
All proceeds benefit the Boardman Center Project, a large-scale renovation effort led by Principal Randall Ebie, to help house the students from a consolidation of buildings.
“The idea is when our fifth-graders come back as sixth-graders and Glenwood [Middle School students] come over, we want the building to look very different than it does when everybody leaves here at the end of this school year,” he said.
The book sale will be the first step to reaching the goal of $10,000 in renovations for the building’s hallways, lockers, rooms, landscaping and several other areas. The project also will help teachers who want to personalize their classroom walls and doors with different paint colors.
In addition to this fundraiser, Ebie said he has several more planned for coming months – as well as help from local businesses, including building supplies and paint.
The idea of the used-book sale came from fifth-grade Language Arts teacher June Baker. Baker said she got the idea from the church she attends, Westminster Presbyterian, which has an annual successful used-book sale.
“This is what is so absolutely amazing about the whole Boardman Center project,” Baker said. “It’s that our families and our community have rallied around this cause so passionately and enthusiastically and have just made our kids feel like they are so loved and so significant.”
This is the first used-book sale the school has had, and Ebie said he hopes it becomes popular tradition.
The sale is organized into two categories, adult and young-adult/children. Paperback books cost 25 cents and hardback books are 50 cents.