To Life!

FDU

Between
The Pages

Bookstock's annual book
and media sale brings
unexpected donations.

Shoppers at

Bookstock's

2004 event

Sunday, April 30, through Sunday,
May 7, at Laurel Park Place, Six
Mile at 1-275, in Livonia.
"It is not at all unusual for
n the midst of being a
us to find photographs',' said
source of low-cost reading
Roz Blanck of West Bloomfield,
and listening enjoyment
Bookstock volunteer co-chair
and an annual fund-raiser for
Detroit area literacy projects,
along with Jodi Goodman, also of
West Bloomfield. "One of our vol-
Bookstock has developed a side-
line as a catch-all for lost memo- unteers found some handwrit-
ries and misplaced treasures.
ten papers that listed a family's
birth and death records:' Blanck
In its four-year existence as a
vast used book and media sale,
said. The papers were found
volunteers who organize the con- inside a 1924 edition of the
tributed items have discovered
English-Yiddish Encyclopedic
Dictionary.
memorabilia and photos left
Volunteers also discovered
behind by donors.
This year's sale will run from
an old photo in a hinged gold
frame-box. A professional pho-
tographer pegged it as an origi-
nal Daguerreotype, taken more
than 120 years ago.
Last week, Blanck received a
note with a pile of photographs
14,
from Gwendolyn Graham of
Fenton, who, at the close of
last year's sale, received a gift
of unsold books to be given
to Hurley Hospital in Flint.
1A119NAgy
"The beautiful children's books
brought pleasure to many chil-
dren who receive medical
services through
Hurley Hospital;'
Graham wrote.
-Z.
"Hopefully
the owners
(of these
pictures)
will
claim
. . 7 r ..A....a .,
, ....
7-'7 - -... ,„,
them."
Ahandwritten
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Blanck
record of Fannie,_.
• -
.141
and Goodman
and Abraham "- ,-, ,` 4:4' -,,•;-.
"*.--, 1. -;.,
''‘..,f ,.
would like to
Moses Alper's
return the memo-
family history

Shelli Liebman Dorfman

Staff writer

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38

Apri1 27 a 2006

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rabilia. And they have seen it
happen.
"Last year, one of our teenage
volunteers found an old family
picture in a book:' Goodman
said. "(Detroit Free Press col-
umnist) Rochelle Riley (who
serves as Bookstock's honorary
chairperson) loved the picture
and wrote about it in her Free
Press column. I received a call
from a woman who recognized
the picture as her (late) mother-
in-law. She told me a vase that
could be seen on a coffee table in
the picture is now hers.
"She saw this as her mother-
in-law's way to get her to be
involved in the community, so
she came and volunteered at the
book sale."

Buying And Selling
Bookstock has more than 700
volunteers this year. Some,
including area youth group and
Jewish club members, help out
during monthly donation days.
Others pack up and unload
trucks the week of the sale and
sort the tens of thousands of
books, DVDs, CDs, books on
tape, magazines and records,
which range in price from 25
cents to $5.
"Some shoppers come for
specific items because they know
Bookstock is a higher quality.
new and gently used book sale
Coodman said. "People often
ask for old yearbooks and cook-
books. They are so popular we've
made them their own category.
Any kind of hobby you can.think
of — like pets, gardening, sew-

ing and crafts — we've been
asked for."
Sometimes groups request cer-
tain types of books in advance.
"Especially self-help books:'
An old photo discovered by
Blanck said. "Rabbi (Yisrael)
a Bookstock volunteer
Pinson wanted books on addic-
tion for (the Daniel B. Sobel)
Friendship House (in West
Bloomfield). Karmanos needed
by Blanck and Goodman as
light fiction for family members
the successor to theused book
waiting for patients having treat-
sale run for many years by the
Detroit chapter of the Brandeis
ments. Once, I read a wish-list in
a paper that asked for dictionar-
University National Women's
ies and thesauruses for a Redford Committee.
school, so we boxed them up for
Bookstock is sponsored by
the Friends of Literacy, a group
them."
of area Jewish literacy and
At the end of the sale, Blanck
educational organizations and
and Goodman make sure all the
books have a new home, even if
the Detroit Jewish Coalition for
°Literacy (DJCL), a project of the
they end up being donated.
"We actively try to find a place Jewish Community Council of
Metropolitan Detroit.
for Judaic and children's books:'
Blanck said. "We call places like
The sale provides essential
the Holocaust [Memorial] Center funding for DJCL, according
to Robert Cohen, JCCouncil's
and congregations and schools.
executive director. "It makes it
Some may go to the National
Yiddish Book Center or Books for possible for the DJCL to enlist its
network of over 400 volunteers
Israel or to JARC group homes."
After that, what is left is sold to
from 40 local Jewish organiza-
tions to conduct book drives and
an online bookseller.
provide tutoring and enrichment
Bookstock was revitalized

Bookstock is sponsored by the Friends of Literacy, which
includes Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit, the
Detroit Jewish Coalition for Literacy, the Jewish Community
Council, Hadassah, National Council of Jewish Women, ORT,
the Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit, the Jewish
Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit, Oakland Literacy
Council, the Detroit Jewish News and CBL & Associates
Properties, owners of Laurel Park Place. Former Laurel Park
Place managing group Schostack Brothers and Company con-
tinue to lend support.

