Hastings Ptsa Used Book Fair Raises More Than $10K

HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – Old books may not have much value individually, but the Hastings Parent Teacher Student Association raised more than $10,000 with its Used Book Fair at Hillside Elementary School over the weekend. 

“We broke our previous record by a lot, the third day put us over $10,000,” said Hastings Board of Education member Donna Lang.  “We’re finally getting it right.”

The big change to this year’s used book fair was the change of days that it is normally run, she said, which led to huge gains.

“There have been a lot of requests for these weekend hours,” she said.  “We used to do Wednesday and Thursday and this year for the first time we did Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and we got a lot of ‘thank yous’ from people on Saturday that said they wouldn’t have been able to come otherwise. This made it much more doable for them.”

Hastings schools Superintendent Timothy Connors said he was more than impressed with the entire operation over the weekend.

“I was most impressed by everybody that worked there, both leading up to it and all the work they did in screening everything that was there and going through and giving it a price,” he said.  “They were just as enthusiastic as the kids in terms of people coming and greeting them.”

Lang said the leftover books from the fair went to good use as well, with some being donated to charities and public schools in the Bronx, along with hospitals and social service organizations.  There were also plenty of books making their way back into the school.

“That’s the nice thing about the fair, in addition to all the money we raise, on Friday afternoon we let all the teachers come and, just for free, take books for their classrooms,” Lang said.  “They were taking them away by the box loads.”

With so many books being sold and donated throughout the community, Connors said it comes just in time for local students.

“March is reading month at Hillside Elementary and we hope that parents, grandparents and others will read a little extra during the month of March,” he said.

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