COVID-19 may have knocked the tent poles out of this year’s gigantic Friends of the Blackstone Library (FOBL) Book Sale on the Branford Green, but Jonathan Clark and the friends’ all-volunteer team have added a new page to their playbook to come up with an alternative: Friends of the Blackstone Library Warehouse Book Sale.

Beginning Friday, Aug. 14, FOBL will hold a series of books sale dates by category, at a warehouse location where shoppers can follow social distancing and other protocols and still grab great books and more at rock-bottom prices. In the FOBL warehouse location at River Run (59 School Ground Road, Unit 6), books will be on sale by category from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. over several sales events taking place Friday to Sunday. Children’s books will be offered Aug. 14 to 16. Fiction will go on sale Aug. 21 to 23. Art, history, and biographies will be on sale Aug. 28 to 30 and cookbooks, crafts and audio visual (CDs, DVDs) will be offered Sept. 11 to 13.

Volunteers have been working hard to coordinate how they will be able to set up and break down their categories so that the same space can be transformed with the right types of books and materials for each sale. Jonathan notes volunteers will be rotating thousands of boxed books to meet the needs of the different offerings being made available during each three-day sales event.

It’s a dramatic change from the usual weekend sale on the Town Green, which requires the team to haul about 70,000 gently used books (all of which have been donated by Branford residents) to one site, then set them up under the big tent.

This time around, about 30,000 donated books will make it to the tables during the sales dates, says Jonathan, who serves on the FOBL board and also pitches in to help with the annual book sale by coordinating adult book and AV collections and sorting.

Switching from Tent to Warehouse

To say the annual tent sale is popular would be an understatement. Last year, it set a record $63,000 in sales. The money provides funding for programs and other offerings at the Blackstone.

Beginning in mid-March, COVID-19 changed this year’s game plan. “The first thing we did back in March, when the [pandemic] shutdown began, was to suspend book collection, which has just recently resumed, in order to protect the volunteers who haul and sort donated material,” says Jonathan.

In June, FOBL announced the cancellation of the big tent sale due to safety concerns for shoppers and volunteers.

“This left us with half a year’s worth of books already collected. We don’t have the storage capacity to hold these books over for another year. So we came up with the idea of having a series of specialized sales in August and September at our warehouse,” Jonathan says. “The warehouse is large enough that we can set up good displays of thousands of books and AV material and still allow for ample social distancing for shoppers and volunteers.”

During each sale, up to 15 shoppers at a time will be allowed to enter the warehouse. In addition to social distancing, shoppers and volunteers must wear face covering masks (hand sanitizer and disposable plastic gloves will be available for free).

Some special categories not listed in the sales series (think travel, gardening, self-help, sports etc.) will be included at the later three sales, as space is freed up, Jonathan notes.

A Book Lover

“Before I retired, I always enjoyed the friends’ big tent book sale on the Town Green and knew I’d want to get involved helping out when I finally had the time. It turned out that my wife beat me to it!” says Jonathan.

Before he retired in 2009, Jonathan’s very interesting and varied career included two years serving in the Peace Corps in Chile from 1966 to ‘68, seven years as a high school social studies teacher in New Haven’s Lee High School from 1970 to ‘77, more than a decade as a rep for a furniture manufacturer, and, from 1989 to 2000, as director of education for Planned Parenthood of CT. Jonathan also served as a special education teacher of at-risk youth for Children’s Center Community Programs from 2000 to 2009.

Jonathan’s wife, Andrea Schieckel, signed on to help coordinate children’s book sorting after her retirement from Walsh Intermediate School, where she taught English. Jonathan joined the FOBL board in 2009, stepping into the open position of coordinator of adult book collection and sorting in 2011.

“This involves coordinating the pickup of donations from our collection bins and home pickups, presorting out waste, children’s books and Vintage for their own sorting groups, and coordinating the sorting, boxing, storing of adult books and audio-visual material. This is a year around endeavor, supported by a wonderful group of other volunteers who haul, sort, and box,” Jonathan explains.

Due to the leadership of Joe Genua and Barbara Barrett and a group of volunteers who help with inventory, about three years ago, FOBL added another profitable and popular way to offer books to the public: online sales.

“Last year, between the tent sale and online sales, we raised in the neighborhood of $90,000,” Jonathan notes. “We made substantial donations to the library renovation project, $25,000 toward audio upgrades for the auditorium, donations for library staff professional development, children’s programs, and museum passes, among other things.”

Beyond the funds raised to support the library, Jonathan says FOBL recognizes the value of offering the annual book sale to help promote literacy in the community.

“It’s about finding new readers for books of all genres that may have been gathering dust or were marked for disposal,” says Jonathan, adding, “and on a very personal note, it keeps me stocked with great reading material that I never would have run across or knew existed were it not for my sorting work. Of the hundred or so books I read each year, probably 70 I borrow from the sorting room. This perk helps keep me going!”

Giving Back to Branford

Jonathan and Andrea raised their three children in Short Beach, where Jonathan grew up. The couple now resides in Indian Neck. Over the years, Jonathan has given back to Branford by serving as an elected official—on the Board of Education from 1981 to ‘85 and eight years with the Representative Town Meeting between the late 1980s and early 1990s. He also was appointed to serve on Branford’s Parks & Open Space Commission for a three-year term in the early 1990s. After his retirement, Jonathan served on the board of Branford Land Trust (BLT) from 2010 to 2019 and remains active in BLT’s osprey program.

Here to Help the Friends

Jonathan enjoys giving his time and effort to assist FOBL and support the library and hopes to encourage others to get involved with the group by signing on to volunteer with the book sale. The effort requires year-round assistance, he notes. Books donated to FOBL for the sale need to be processed, sorted, stored, and distributed for sale. Volunteers work at a site in the basement of the Patricia C. Andriole Volunteer Service Building on Harrison Avenue (children’s books) and the rented warehouse space at 59 School Ground Road (adult books and AV material).

“Many of us are getting up there in years. Right now, we have an urgent need for volunteers with strong backs and hatchback vehicles,” says Jonathan. “It’s year-round work, with great reading material as one reward.”

More information on the sale and becoming a volunteer is available at www.facebook.com/JBMLfriends, by calling 203-488-1441, or by emailing friends@blackstonelibrary.org.