Book fair moves to new location

Recreation Opportunities for Children (ROC) Eastman has delayed its annual fall book fair as the inventory is moved to a new location. 

“We need to move our location again,” says Moni Loewen, Executive Director. “Which is totally fine. We’ve been at Swift for over a year, and they are unbelievable to us. They do need that space now, and so that is totally understandable. We’re still so grateful to them for everything they do for us.” 

Loewen adds that Swift is helping ROC Eastman with making the move to a new spot. 

“We're just in a bit of a waiting game,” she says. “We just need to work on some permits so that we can have in person sales. We can get going with our online sales again which is very exciting.” 

ROC Eastman has made the books available year-round via an online store. Loewen expects that service will return next month after the books have been unpacked. 

“Our volunteers are asking us every day, ‘What’s the plan? What's the plan?’” 

The book fair in spring resulted in more than 2,700 books being sold within the 3-day event. The fall book fair would normally happen in October, and Loewen says many people are eager to check out the book selection. 

“We are still going strong with the planning and hoping to be sorting our mountains of donated books again that we've gotten over the summer,” she says. “We will be back (online and in-person) in November and a different place.” 

Loewen says the online book sales have been strong throughout the year. 

“At its peak, we were getting orders in every day which was super exciting,” she says. “And we have really great donated books in spectacular shape, and then we post them (in the online store) and then people can buy them. We actually ship across Canada. We'll ship further.” 

The online bookstore has been a neat addition to the book fair, Loewen says. She is eager to tie up the last few details and unpack the books at a new location. Loewen expects to release details in the very near future.