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Book Fair Foundation

Dayton Book Fair Cancelled

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After much contemplation and discussion, the Book Fair Foundation, Inc. has opted to cancel their Book Fair for November 2020. This is the first year in 50 that there will not be an enormous Book Fair in Ohio, the second weekend in November.

Executive Director Larkin Vonalt posted the follow on the Dayton Book Fair Facebook page today:

“Please do not be too hard on us, we are heartbroken.

Donations are down due to the pandemic, and our volunteer ranks have been decimated by the loss of a great many helpful people who are simply too high-risk to come out. We could not figure out how to even manage social distancing, upholding mask protocols, and whatever other mandates the state may have bestowed by then. In addition, it is hard to know what the country is going to look like the week after the election.

The beneficiaries we chose for 2020— Community Voices at WYSO, the Dayton International Peace Museum, and X/ACT (Xenia Area Community Theatre) will be our beneficiaries for 2021.

We will still celebrate our 50th anniversary next year, featuring Harriet Beecher Stowe. Mark your calendars now for Friday, November 12, 2021, through Monday, November 15, 2021.

Donations are still being accepted at our 2181 Embury Park Road facility and at barrel and drop off points around the community.

We are ever more in need of volunteers to process and price books; if you love books and have some spare time, please come see us. Our offices remain open on Embury Park: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm and Wednesday from 1 pm until 7 pm.”

 

 

Dayton Book Fair Chooses Beneficiaries for 2020

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The Dayton Book Fair announced that they have chosen this year’s three beneficiaries to receive proceeds from their 50th anniversary Book Sale in November 2020. Each beneficiary will receive a grant of around ten thousand dollars.

This year the three beneficiaries are:

The Dayton International Peace Museum is the only brick and mortar Peace Museum in North or South America and the houses the only interactive exhibit on the Dayton Peace Accords in the world. They are the official repository for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and run a very successful Peace Camp for children ages 5-12. They maintain changing exhibits on the many challenges to peace and peacemaking including the effects of violence and war, gun culture, poverty, bullying, the environment, and international cooperation.

The Xenia Area Community Theater is an all-volunteer theater and gallery space established in 2005 to serve area interests in performing and fine arts and stimulate community involvement in those areas. They produce eight fully staged plays during their regular season (to date more than 100 productions) along with several summer shows and youth camps. Their plans for the grant from the Book Fair Foundation include a week-long Special Needs Children’s Initiative workshop and performance for children on the Autism Spectrum, and to improve theatre accessibility to a variety of groups whose ability to attend live theater is hampered by ticket cost.

WYSO, the public radio station long-associated with Antioch College has recently separated their university relationship to become an independent entity. While much of their budget pays for nationally syndicated public radio programming, the grant from the Dayton Book Fair will enable them to fund grassroots programming in the Center for Community Voices, for the documentary and story-telling segments produced by Dayton Youth Radio, Women’s Voices (produced by female inmates at a Dayton correctional facility) and County Lines, focusing on the rural populations in our community.

“It is challenging to choose just three,” said Dayton Book Fair Executive Director Larkin Vonalt. “It is a multi-day project for the Foundation’s board to winnow down from dozens of excellent organizations all doing important work to just three.”

Asked about criteria that the board might consider in choosing the finalists, Ms. Vonalt noted that they examine the size of the organization, the need for funding, and how the board feels that the year-long partnership will work.

“There are so many intangibles,” she added, “and at the very end when we’ve narrowed it to just a few, it often comes down to what kind of fit it will be for all of us.”

The Dayton Book Fair board handles grant-making a little differently than other foundations, requiring a year-long informal partnership with the beneficiaries. Organizations chosen are asked to promote the sale through a variety of means, they are encouraged to hold a book drive and required to volunteer at least 40 hours over the year.

Since 2015 the Foundation has made grants to 16 different organizations in the Dayton Community, giving away more than $130,000 over the last five years. The Dayton Book Fair is Ohio’s largest used book sale and each year rehomes about 40 tons of books, records, puzzles, and games.

“While the grant-making is an essential part of our existence, and we are delighted to be able to support so many exceptional Dayton-area non-profits, we have discovered that we have another remarkably important mission in providing a meaningful and purposeful venue where people can donate their beloved books,” Ms. Vonalt commented, noting that they collect books all year round at their office at 2181 Embury Park Rd as well as offering a free pick up service for those who need it and collaborating twice a year with all the Dayton area Grismer Tire Stores for book “round-ups” the last week of May and August.

Those donated books are then sorted, priced and packed for the sale held each year the second weekend in November at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, and the proceeds from that sale used in making grants to community non-profit organizations working in the areas of arts, education, social welfare, literacy and community development.

 

Book Fair Names 3 Charity Beneficiaries for 2019

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The Dayton Book Fair Foundation has chosen three downtown Dayton nonprofit organizations as beneficiaries of the 2019 Dayton Book Fair. This year’s book fair is the the 49th annual fair, the largest used book sale in Ohio and will generate grants of around $10,000 for each recipient.

The three organizations chosen from a large pool of applicants are the Dayton Day of the Dead Festival, the Greater Dayton LGBT Center and Community Action Partners of the Miami Valley.

“We get so many excellent applicants each year,” said foundation director Larkin Vonalt “that it’s a great challenge to just pick three.” The process of choosing beneficiaries takes four to six weeks for the board of seven. “The organizations we chose this year had also applied in previous years,” Vonalt said “and in that light, we strongly encourage organizations to apply more than once.”

 

Community Action Partners of Miami Valley

The three groups they picked this year all call downtown Dayton home, and range from a tiny nonprofit to an enormous organization with a multi-million dollar budget. “But just because they’re big doesn’t mean that they don’t need help,” Vonalt explained. That beneficiary, Community Action Partners of Miami Valley has been trying for years to build a bus shelter outside their south Main St. offices to provide a safe, dry place for their clients to wait for the bus. Though their budget is considerable, all of it has stipulations attached, and there was nothing extra to build the shelter.”  Community Action Partners is a private non-profit organization that provides assistance with utilities, weatherization, shelter programs, transportation, legal issues, home repair, computer literacy, tax assistance and housing.

LGBT Center Thanksgiving Dinner

Also chosen to receive a grant this year is the Greater Dayton LGBT Center on Jefferson St. The funding they’ll receive is earmarked for the commercial kitchen they’re building to prepare free community meals they offer, teach cooking classes and meet the requirements for a licensed kitchen to be able to make food items for resale. The LGBT Center also offers support groups, a book club, health testing, holiday gatherings, social events, AA meetings, Yoga classes and seminars in their efforts to “enhance lives and empower members of diverse sexual and gender communities throughout the Miami Valley.”

“The third recipient is the smallest, a group of artists and musicians that for the last seven years have produced (on a shoestring) a marvelous festival and parade celebrating Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, one of the most important of Mexican holidays,” Vonalt said.

Dia de Muertos Dayton

Though predominantly Mexican, the holiday is also marked in Europe as “All Saints Day” and focuses on gatherings to remember friends and family who have died, and help support their spiritual journey through parties, parades and the making of altars to honor them. This vibrant celebration at the Dayton Day of the Dead Festival begins with a parade through the Oregon district with huge skeleton puppets, floats, revelers in elaborate costumes (and sugar-skull facepaint and wreaths of flowers), musicians, dancers and children. The parade finishes at the Old Yellow Cab company where festivities continue with story telling, folk dancing, music, more face painting and Mexican and South American street food provided by local restaurants and St. Mary’s Church. The festival is free and family-friendly.

 

Through the year, the organizations are each asked to provide 40 hours of volunteer service to the Book Fair Foundation and to help with a book drive and promoting the fair. “We hope to build a relationship with each of our beneficiaries,” Vonalt explained. “In the end, we want to try to build a stronger network of Dayton-area non-profits helping each other.”

The Book Fair will be presenting  checks next week of $10,000 each to their 2018 Beneficiaries Rebuilding Together Dayton, the Victory Project and We Care Arts.

The 2019 book sale will be Friday, Nov 8th through Monday, Nov 11th at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.  Donated books are accepted  at the Book Loft,” located at 2181 Embury Park Road in Dayton, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to 3 pm, Wednesdays from 1 pm to 7 pm and Saturdays from 10 am to 3 pm. If you have a very large number of books to donate, or you need help with your books, give them a call at 937.999.4491.

Are you interested in volunteering? The Book Foundation can always use some help, whether as a member of their volunteer staff at the Book Loft, help with our Book Round-Ups in May and August, and of course, help with the mammoth Book Fair (the largest book sale in Ohio!) the second weekend in November. If you are interested in volunteering, please give them a call at 937.999.4491, send us an email at bookfair@earthlink.net

Book Fair Foundation Sales Starts Today!

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The Book Fair Foundation is comprised of a group of civic-minded people who work together collecting books to support community charities, carrying on the good works the group began in 1970. They work all year collecting books, magazines and vinyl  and findings and resell those during their annual Book Fair which starts today  Friday, November 9th at the new Montgomery County Fairgrounds located at 5661 Dayton-Liberty Rd.

 

While most books are on the table for sale, there is also a curated auction featuring some very interesting and unusual books, and the opportunity to obtain some extraordinarily rare titles at a reasonable price. (Including a first edition of Beatrix Potter’s A Tale of Tom Kitten, a copy of the Geography of Dayton inscribed from Colonel Deeds to Arthur Morgan, a first edition of Isaac Asimov’s The Naked Sun. Quite a few pieces of local interest, including the first publication of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “Joggin’ Erlong” in the old Cosmopolitan Magazine (which also includes the first printing of a Jack London short-story) Happy Reading!

Auction Catalog 2018 text

Auction items will be available for examination as soon as the sale opens at 9 a.m. on Friday, November 9th. For most books, the auction will end at 6 p.m. on Saturday, November 10th. In the instance where there is active bidding on a book at 6 p.m., bids will be taken until 5 minutes elapses with no new bids

Friday, November 9
9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
$10 admission, all day

Saturday, November 10
9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Free admission

Sunday, November 11
9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Bag Sale Day – Free admission – $7.50 per bag (sales tax included)

Monday, November 12
8 a.m. to 12 noon
Clean Sweep Day – Pay $1 admission, and take all the books you want

Plenty of free parking is available.

We are excited about the move to the new Fairgrounds where the building is bigger (and warmer) and brand spanking new. There is plenty of paved parking on flat ground!

The beneficiaries of the 2018 Dayton Book Fair are Rebuilding Together Dayton, The Victory Project and We Care Arts.

Rebuilding Together Dayton works to  build community partnerships that provide home rehabilitation for low-income Dayton Area homeowners, particularly the elderly, so they may live in warmth, safety and independence. All of their work falls into one of four focus areas: safe and healthy housing, youth and corporate engagement, community revitalization and veteran housing.  The average age of their clients is 77, and the average annual income $16,000. Read more about their vision and accomplishments at their website  http://www.rtdayton.org

The Victory Project is a privately funded nonprofit after-school program which mentors disengaged young men in our city. They forged an alliance  between business, criminal justice and faith communities to allow local teens to break the cycle of hopelessness, insignificance and isolation by addressing physical, emotional and spiritual needs.  Offering a real alternative to the streets, they are open year round, six days a week, building long-lasting relationships with young men at risk, sharing dinner together every weeknight, providing  individualized tutoring and entrepreneurship models through landscaping and home improvement micro-businesses.  Check out their website at http://www.victoryproject.org/

An uncommon alliance has formed between the business, criminal justice and faith communities to allow our young men to break the cycle of hopelessness, insignificance and isolation by addressing physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

We Care Arts works with developmentally disabled adults and youth, senior citizens with dementia, and the mentally ill to  achieve greater personal independence. Through a variety of art experiences, they promote the artist’s individuality, self esteem, community skills, ability to focus, life skills, responsibility, confidence and job skills.  A team of paid staff and volunteers creates an environment that fosters individual talents and provides  training for each artist. In addition, We Care Arts has developed installations for use in public schools and the “Art on a Cart” program for patients receiving chemotherapy.  Click their website link to learn more!   http://www.wecarearts.org/

 We are delighted to be part of the future of these three wonderful organizations and look forward to getting to know them better through partnership and volunteer opportunities throughout the year.
The Book Fair foundation is taking applications for 2019 beneficiaries, more info here.

Book Fair Accepting Applications for 2017 Charity Partners

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bookfairlogo2-1The Dayton Book Fair Foundation hosted it’s 2016 book sale just a couple of weeks ago and proceeds were donated to 3 local non-proftits- FilmDayton, K12 Gallery & TEJAS, Learning Tree Farm.

Now it’s time to find 3 new beneficiaries for the 2017 sale, which will be held the second week in November.

The application process could not be simpler— there’s no form or report or presentation. We simply need a letter from your group. Your letter should tell us something about the group’s mission, your role in our community, and how you envision a partnership with the Book Fair Foundation.

There are three requirements for application:

  1. Your group must be a registered organization in the State of Ohio.
  2. Your location must be within 25 miles of the city of Dayton
  3. You must be a 501c3.

Letters must be received by December 31, 2016.

The board will meet early in January to talk about the applications we’ve received. Some of the things that we consider is what kind of “match” the applicant feels like for us— does this seem like a group whose mission is in concert with our own? We also look at the 990-N documents that each organization has filed. We work very hard to make the book fair a success. We’d like the gift we give to have significant impact on the organizations we choose.bookfair

Dayton Book Fair beneficiaries share equally in the net proceeds generated by the fair– and this year we will again choose three organizations.

If your group is chosen as a beneficiary, there are certain requirements you should be aware of.

We require 40 volunteer hours from your organization. It can be 40 people for one hour, 4 people for ten hours, one person for 40 hours— the volunteer hours can be at the sale, or during one of our two roundups or during the year at the Book Loft, or a combination of any of those. At least four of those forty hours must be fulfilled on the afternoon of November 13th,2017 the Monday following the sale.

Additionally, we expect that you will promote the 47th Annual Dayton Book Fair among your own volunteers, staff and fans– through newsletter, website, Facebook page, emails or tweets. We want the people who love your organization to help support you by supporting the Book Fair.

2016_11_10_book_fair-1Letters of application should be sent to the Book Fair Foundation, 2181 Embury Park Rd, Dayton, OH 45414. You are also welcome to drop off your letter at our Embury Park Road office. (Look for the big red sign in the yard.) We are open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 10 to 3 and Wednesday 1 to 7.

We will announce the beneficiaries of the 2017 Dayton Book Fair on Monday, January 16th, 2017 on this site, on our Facebook page and on our telephone greeting.

And remember, if we don’t choose you this year, that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t choose you another year, so even if you are disappointed, be sure to apply again.

It’s Time For the Book Fair Round Up

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bookfairlogo2-1Collecting Books to Support Community Programs
Saturday, May 21st Dayton Book Fair Foundation will roll out the barrels for their spring book roundup this Saturday, May 21st from 10am to 1pm. Volunteers will be on hand to hand out receipts for donations of gently used books on all subjects for adults and children, movies, CDs, board games, puzzles, and records for our sale in November.

 

Book Fair Foundation, a volunteer driven organization which began in 1970, works year-round collecting books for their annual Book Fair held during the second weekend in November at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds. Each year benefitting a different group of local non-profits, for 2016 proceeds will benefit K12 Gallery/TEJAS, The Learning Tree Farm and FilmDayton.

 

Round Up Locations for Saturday, will be:

 

  • St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 33 W. Dixon, Oakwood
  • David’s United Church of Christ, 170 W. David Rd, Kettering
  • Harmony Creek United Church of Christ, 5280 Bigger Rd, Centerville
  • Polk Grove United Church of Christ 9190 Frederick Pike, Englewood
  • K12 Gallery/TEJAS 341 S. Jefferson St. Dayton
  • The Learning Tree Farm 3376 S. Union Rd. Dayton
  • Look at a Book, 661 Lyons Road, Centerville
  • Siebenthaler Parking Lot, 545 W. Siebenthaler at Catalpa, Dayton
  • Beavercreek Senior Center, 3868 Dayton-Xenia Road, Beavercreek
  • The Book Loft, 2181 Embury Park Rd, Dayton

 

Book Fair Foundation would love to have your donations of gently used books on all subjects for adults and children, movies, CDs, board games, puzzles, and records for our sale in November.

 

If you can’t make the Round-Up, there will be another on Aug 20th or you can donate at The Book Loft throughout the year– that’s at 2181 Embury Park Road, Dayton, OH 45414. Open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays 10am – 3pm and Wednesdays 1 – 7pm , plus there is a secure book drop with 24 hour access.