The first winner is the environment which benefits from the relocation of some 12,000 pre-loved books with new owners annually and the appropriate recycling of over 10 tonnes of waste paper rather than its consignment to landfill.
The second winners are the bibliophiles of Howick in Auckland, NZ who get to purchase these pre-loved books, the majority of which have new prices of $20-50, for $3 or less and get to re-love these books all over again.
Winner number three is the Rotary Club of Howick, its members and their friends and family who for the six weeks of the campaign display true spirit of teamwork and camaraderie to get the job done.
The fourth winner is the Rotary Club’s Charitable Trust fund which annually benefits from NZ$25,000-$30,000 that can be applied through the club committees to community projects.
The fifth winners are the community groups who benefit from the distribution of these funds so that they can finance and progress their projects.
Winner number six is a fairly recent initiative. For the past three years, three schools in less affluent areas of Auckland have collected a big truckload of well sorted leftover books with which they conduct their own $1 book fairs and raise money for the school, but more importantly placed many books in houses where their presence is a rarity.
Winners number seven are community groups associated with the schools to whom the schools donate some of their surplus books.
And finally winners number eight are a series of local church groups with Pacific island connections who receive the balance of unsold books which they send to churches in the islands for distribution to their parishioners.
So what started 12 years ago as a small fundraising venture has grown into a many faceted exercise that truly epitomises Rotary’s 4-Way Test of being “beneficial to all concerned".
