By Lee Scott
On Sept. 22, I was one of the many volunteers assigned to work the annual Friends of the Beaufort Library Book Sale.
When I got the call from Danielle Gillespie, the volunteer coordinator, I happily agreed as I have in the past.
This year I was a bagger. At first, I was not thrilled with my new assignment. In the past, I was one of the sorters. We would separate the books genre — mystery books here, biographies there, children’s books over in the corner.
It was so much fun because as I was going through the books, I could grab one and put it aside to purchase later. Oh, what joy to find those old classic children’s books to give to my grandchildren.
But I quickly discovered how much fun it was to be a bagger. It seemed every book I touched, I wanted. My partner, Alexa, who was the cashier, became an instant friend over our shared love of books. We would croon over mutual favorites as the customer would hand over their cash.
The other enjoyable part for me as a bagger, besides salivating over all the books, was meeting the people.
One couple, who have lived on Tybee Island for 20 years, had never been to Beaufort; visiting Savannah and Charleston instead. They said they had read about the book sale and decided to come up. They loved Beaufort and were interested in learning more about the town.
There was another couple who came with their cloth bags and filled them with books. After they were all squared away, they asked if there was a good place to eat. What could I tell them? I love them all and yes, there are a couple of restaurants I frequent more than others, but my taste might be different from theirs.
I started rambling off names of restaurants and they both laughed. It might be a good idea for our local restaurants to order some monogrammed bookbags as giveaways for next year.
It is hard to fathom all the work that goes into this project, but a shout out to Marilyn Harcharik, Kinsey Baker and Kelly Baker and Danielle Gillespie for their work. Like any project, it takes good leadership to get the volunteers. Of course, the U.S. Marines and the Boy Scouts came out to help again, which is wonderful.
That Friday was a great day, but surprisingly I left without buying any books. You see, I knew my husband and I would be back on Sunday with our canvas bags, ready to fill them up with travel, history and biographies, followed up, of course, by a great lunch downtown.
