Numbers were way up from last year for the Friends of the Oak Park Library’s 41st Annual Book Fair, thanks in large part to a return to their usual location at Oak Park and River Forest High School.
Library Executive Director Dierdre Brennan said that the exact totals have not yet been calculated, but she estimated the Friends raised some $50,000 for the library this year.
“It’s substantially up from last year,” she said, adding that the line of people waiting to get into the event on Friday night stretched across at least a block and a half of North Scoville Avenue.
Brennan said the total profit looks to be pretty closely in line with what the Friends have made in previous years holding the book fair at OPRF. Last year, however, the book fair had to be relocated.The event was held in a vacant Volvo dealership building on Madison, which provided significantly less space than the high school. Brennan said that the Friends and the library were extremely grateful to the village for helping to find a building to house the book fair, since it couldn’t he held at OPRF. But the new space required more overhead and there was less customer traffic flow.
The volunteer effort to prepare for the book fair began in early July.
“Everyone is so appreciative here at the library for what the Friends do,” Brennan said. “This supports basically our entire programming budget.”