Volunteer Highlight – An Interview with Jim Mills – Book Sale Volunteer
by Anne Weirich, Secretary, Brewster Ladies’ Library Association
I guess that it’s no surprise that someone who loves to read as much as Jim Mills had some great stories to tell about his time as a volunteer for the Brewster Ladies’ Library Association and the Brewster Ladies ‘Library.
Jim has spent most of his volunteer time working on the Association’s Book Sale. In about 1997, his wife Linda began volunteering for the sale. After he came back from a vacation to New Zealand, she asked him, “Well, what are you going to do?” From then on, Jim and Linda were deeply involved in the day to day work of sorting, storing, shelving and selling books for the Association.
The book sale is the most important fundraiser for the BLLA. During the years that Jim and his team managed all forms of bookselling, from 1998 – 2019, $680,397.54 was raised! These funds are the foundation of the 25 percent contribution that the Association’s members give to the library’s annual town budget. Without the Book Sale, library programming and book purchasing power would go way down. This is why Association membership and volunteering is so important. Jim thinks it may be why so many people contribute and buy books at the sale.
Jim began as a volunteer when Len Neil was the Book Sale manager. Len gave the Book Sale room its current look: He built the shelves along the back wall and the A frame shelves. Len also made tables to replace the planks and sawhorses that held books for years. In 1998, Jim helped Len manage the sale. Somewhere around 2010 Hannah Larson joined the management team. After Len and his wife Edna (also a volunteer) moved in 2007, Linda and Jim, along with Hannah, continued to manage the sale. In 2019, Linda retired and Jim stepped down from managing – but he still volunteers. Hannah currently manages the sale—both in the summer and winter—with her team, including Jim.
When asked why he liked being a part of the Book Sale team, Jim said, “Because there are so many interesting books and other things that come in!” Then he started in with donation stories:
- One set of donated books was a woman’s diary kept for 4 years in the 1930s. She rarely mentioned the world (she did mention when Roosevelt was elected) but only tells about her life on Cape Cod.
- A photo album from a small town in north central Maine came in. It was filled from old pictures from the early 1900s, including amazing photos of the town’s trolley and the plow car that cleared the tracks in the winter.
- A first edition of Gulliver’s Travels from 1726 was donated once. After not selling on line for $1200, (yes, on lines sales were from 2001-2005. Anyone want to volunteer to start it again?). The book sat around for a long time until someone gave the library $150 for it.
- A lot of old newspapers are donated. As Jim read one from Baltimore dated sometime in April 1912, he found an ad for tickets on the Titanic. For the return voyage that never happened!
- In the past the volunteers picked up a lot of donations at people’s homes. One time he went to the house of a German woman had books up in her bedroom. As Jim gathered them up, he glanced at the photos on her dresser. He saw 2 pictures of Hitler and Goering and a young girl. The girl was handing Hitler a flower arrangement. When Jim asked her about the photo, she said it was she as a 5 year old, in 1935. Apparently, this kind of photograph was the practice whenever Hitler passed through a town.
- Another donor in Harwich gave sheet music from the 1900s – hundreds of pages, all with beautiful artwork on the covers that were sold for a few dollars.
- Another gave rolls of player piano music – which was not a big seller.
Jim’s time at the Book Sale has seen a few changes in the way things are managed. But overall, he feels that the whole operation works well. Perhaps, he said, bringing back the opening day bake sale would bring a smile to those who come (and those who volunteer)! He thinks people still miss it. But these days are very good. Jim says that the current crew is one of the best – or maybe THE best one – the book sale has every had.
Jim is also a library volunteer. He and several others publish monthly book reviews. You can find the reviews on the shelves the right of the check out desk by the computers. If you’d like to review a book or think about taking over when Jim’s ready to step away, please email him at jlmills43@comcast.net.
Another long time Book Sale volunteer, Beth Finch worked on the Brewster Oral History Project and Jim became the videographer. If you want to catch some of his work and hear some stories about Brewster, check the videos out on YouTube.
Many thanks to you, Jim, for your work and your stories about how you and your wife, Linda, and many, many other volunteers have made the Book Sale so wonderful and beneficial for the Brewster Ladies’ Library and Association! VOLUNTEERS ARE THE BEST1
