Valerie Welch, the treasurer of the Circle of Friends of the Gulfport Library, manned a table in front of the library on January 30 to collect boxes of books – donations that will help to stock the bookshop and contribute funds to the library.
“Pre-COVID, people could drop off their books any old time, but we haven’t been able to do that. So in December we started with a couple of book drives. So we do a drive by donation, two box limit,” Welch said.
This book drive produced the greatest donations yet, with 50 boxes and bags of books. Bookshop staff will now sorting the books, price them and put them out for sale.
“The library is really a wonderful community center, and now that there are more snowbirds here, you know, we’re selling a lot more books,” Welch told the Gabber.
Valerie Welch and Phyllis Rosenblum are in charge of the Circle of Friends bookstore inside the front of the library. Welch said there are around 60 active members in the Circle of Friends and are always looking for more interested members.
“It’s been really hard for us, but we meet once a month and we’re doing Zoom meetings just to keep the energy going, and that’s why I designed this book drive,” Welch said. “So that we could just keep energy for interest in the library.”