A larger than expected crowd attended the 14th Michael Egan Memorial Book Fair organised by Dubbo West Rotary.
“We thought the Saturday crowd last year was fantastic,” said fair co-ordinator Colin Shanks, “but the crowd went to the next level this year. The wonderful volunteers from the RFDS Dubbo Support Group at one stage had a long queue waiting to purchase books.”
Dubbo West Rotary President Stuart Astley said: “Our Thursday drive-through drop-off was probably too successful... we spent much of Friday finishing the sorting of the thousands of books received.
"It’s great that we receive so much support from the community, without the books being donated we don’t have a book fair.”
While the final figures are still being determined it is expected that over $25,000 has been raised for charity. “It looks like we’ve raised $6,000 more than last year,” said Mr Shanks. “We didn’t expect that.”
“We expect to make some announcements about donations in the near future,” said Mr Astley. “We have previously announced the RFDS Dubbo Support Group as a recipient of the funds, and we are yet to make a final decision regarding the destination of the funds for Cancer Research and Patient Support.”
Last year funds raised help to support some updates to the RFDS Dubbo Hangar and through the Western Cancer Centre Foundation, funds helped to purchase a special chemotherapy chair that supported an initiative for remote virtually-assisted chemotherapy at an outreach centre in a remote community west of Dubbo.
Next year’s book fair has been set for May 3 and 4.
Please follow the Michael Egan Memorial Book Fair Facebook page to keep up-to-date with details including when the next book collection day will be in October, 2024.
Mr Astley was appreciative of the support of sponsors that have made the book fair possible. “Each year we have some sponsors that enable us to host the book fair. We really appreciate their support.”
