Although I probably mentioned it before, over the years, an empty building of this size attracts a lot of items that “need” to be stored. Some short term, others long term, still more that are of the “let’s put it here for now and let the next guy throw it out” variety. We have plenty of the last type! As we accumulate more and more items for the school, we need to eliminate this clutter.
As you may have noticed in some of the photos I have posted, there are a couple rooms with hundreds of boxes in them. Most are neatly stacked on shelves, some on pallets, some in piles, others just put wherever there was space. These are brand new books, evidently overruns and leftovers from a local publisher and printer that went out of business a number of years ago. Encountering this pile brings many questions to mind, which I’m sure you also have. I have no answers.
Also in these rooms were many years of business records from several companies. My wife and I spent two days cleaning out these records, many of which should have been discarded 20 years ago. We hauled out at least 2,300 lbs of paperwork!
Until recently, the books were in the custody of someone who wanted to make an effort to contact authors and get these books sent to those who wanted them. That was an admirable goal, but there are many authors here, and over 20,000 books, so it was a big job at this late date. I took on the task of managing these books and planning their ultimate destination should we ever be given ownership.
I decided to get ahead off the game and made some contacts myself about some of the books that still have resale value. I was kind of surprised when I could not generate any interest at all. At this point there were pretty much two options, recycling or landfill. It seemed a shame to send them to the landfill, so I investigated numerous book recyclers on the internet. Surprise again, no interest, most times no replies. We had almost resigned ourselves to just having to trash them with no hope of getting money for them, but looking back now, I think God was planning something else.
At some point, I think the enormity of the task of getting the books taken care of just got to be too much and the owners turned them over to us. Now it was our turn.
After attempting to contact recyclers all over the Midwest, I found a very local person who recycles books and is also a book seller. He was interested, so as soon as we were given the books, I contacted him and he came to look at them. Here’s where it gets interesting. He was unable to offer us any cash, which didn’t surprise me, we just wanted the books gone, and having exhausted all the options, (we thought), we were happy just to have the space. We made plans for him to come by again and do a more detailed inventory in a few days.
Prior to my contacting the recycler, I had also contacted a local store owner who loves books like I do, and he said he wanted to look at them. I planned a couple times to make time for him to look at them but it never worked out for either me or him.. I was about ready to give up, but I had made him a promise, so at pretty much the last chance, we went and looked them over. He bought a few, and said he wanted to think about it over the weekend, because he may want a few more.
Monday morning he called, so we met there in the afternoon, and in the end, he bought several thousand books! God provided more funds than we would have gotten from any recycler.
Within a few more days, all the books had been removed from the rooms and were on 17 pallets in the hallway, waiting for another recycling company to pick them up. The local contact took a number of books he wanted to resell, and made a deal with a recycling company that is out of the area to get the rest. Over the next week or so, the recycler picked them all up, and we are left with lots of empty shelves.
I am actually going to miss these books! I have been working on them since we bought the building. Going through them, selecting a few for the library, giving them to friends, trying to get others interested, selling some, and setting up their disposal has taken a lot of time. I do think I am the only one that will miss them, though!
We did find several hundred mint condition hymnals that we are wanting to sell. If you know anyone that wants them, check with us to see if they are still available.
Another blessing from these books was the discovery that there were over 1,300 coloring books stored here, each of which contained a set of Crayola crayons! The coloring books were not very nice, but as soon as we got custody of the books, I spent two days collecting all the crayons. We now have enough for about 10 years! Just think about it. God knew in 2005 that we were going to need crayons for our school in 2023, so he arranged for these books to be stored where we would find them! To me, surprises like this are confirmation that we are doing God’s will. Pray that we will continue to follow his lead.
If you would like to donate to our project, you can go on our website, www.uccs.school, there is a Donate button there, or you can contact us for more information. If you would like to make a totally anonymous donation, there is a button on our website to go through the Anabaptist Financial group. You can direct them to send your money to us, and your identity remains private.
