Lindsay’s booked up every September.

Lindsay Holland knows a thing or two about books and that’s not surprising because for over forty years he has been involved in Ashburton Rotary Club’s Bookarama. Lindsay is this month’s Volunteering Mid & South Canterbury and the Hotel Ashburton Volunteer of the Month.

Lindsay volunteers to keep me off the streets, to be part of “my community and because I enjoy it.

Lindsay had only just joined Rotary when a fellow club member suggested trying an idea, they had seen at a Rotary Club in Southern New Zealand, a Bookarama, selling second handbooks as a fundraiser. Ashburton Rotary Club tried it, and you could say the rest is history.

Every year at least 1000 banana boxes of books are sorted, 600 boxes are already gathered for this years Bookarama in late September. Lindsay doesn’t just turn up the week of Bookarama to help sell them. Every week of the year Lindsay is out picking up books in the community. He is a very regular visitor to Community House where there is year-round collection box.

He transport’s the books to their Rotary depot where they are semi sorted into category ready for the forty pallets of books to be displayed for Bookarama and sold raising over $50, 000 a year.

Lindsay has the knack of finding books that are worth a bit more than the average book among the donated items and these can then be priced accordingly.

Over his 40 plus years he has held many positions within Rotary club.

Rotary isn’t the only organisation he volunteers with. He is a Trustee and volunteer with the Lynn Woodwork Museum Trust where he is currently
building cabinets and cataloguing over 1200 donated items.

He has been a volunteer with the Ashburton District Family History Group for over 20 years and has held various positions within this organisation.

One of his greatest achievements with this organisation has been part of group who photographed over 20000 headstones in all the cemeteries in Mid Canterbury from the main ones to ones in paddocks. These have been uploaded to the Ashburton District Council cemetery records.

He knows what Ashburton looks like on a Saturday night, as Lindsay is a volunteer with Town Watch, who provide additional eyes for the Police around the district, keeping an eye on what is happening from their car and reporting it back to the Police, if need be.

His fellow Rotarians describe him as having given exceptional service to Bookarama and many other organisations. Lindsay currently volunteers with eight organisations, but Bookarama must be his passion. Bookarama is so important to him that when he had to purchase a new vehicle, he made sure it was one fit for carting boxes of books around in.

Ashburton Rotary Club currently has around 50 members and he said they were always on the lookout for new members. Rotary is an international organisation that does charitable work locally, nationally, and internationally through literacy, community and humanitarian projects.

Ashburton Rotary Bookarama is on from September 25 -30 at the Ashburton Sports Hall in Tancred Street, Ashburton

Photo from Ashburton Rotary Facebook page