Books, books, books … 7000! Bargain basement prices

Rotary Book Fair returns to Lygon St in December!

Carlton Rotary Club will be returning to a pop-up shop in Lygon St in mid-December to conduct its popular Annual Book Fair. The books will be on sale until mid-January 2022 with all proceeds going to local and national community service projects.

In recent years, most of the proceeds have been directed to Australian Rotary Health with the emphasis on mental health. As we all now know, mental health has been a lot in the news lately, particularly as Victorians have been feeling the effects of prolonged lockdowns.

One way that we can contribute to support people with mental health problems is to do a mental health first aid training course. More than 900,000 Australians have now done one of these courses, which build skills in how to assist someone who is developing a mental health problem or in a mental health crisis, such as feeling suicidal.

In November 2021, the CEO of Beyond Blue Georgie Harman was guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Central Melbourne’s 29th Paul Harris Breakfast held online this year and commented that calls from Victoria to Beyond Blue’s support services had doubled during the pandemic. Refer to coronavirus.beyondblue.org.au for further assistance.

However, funds from the Book Fair have been also been made available to many community projects including to Princes Hill Secondary College where two awards have been made available since the pandemic started around March 2020; one is the Leadership and Resilience Award and the other is the Perseverance Award. Each award of $500 is in the form of a voucher from Readings. It is envisaged the award will support purchases required in further study in the new year.

Carlton Primary School (Palmerston St, Carlton) received a special donation of $1000 from Carlton Rotary to assist them in maintaining a speech therapy program continuing a relationship that the school and Rotary have now enjoyed for 20 years.

Following the Christmas Lunch on December 14, Carlton Rotary will be donating brand-new children’s books to Ronald McDonald House at the Royal Children’s Hospital – these are just a few of the local community projects supported on a regular basis.

December 14 Christmas Lunch Special with Victor Perton, CEO of The Centre for Optimism. Venue: Graduate House at 220 Leicester St, Carlton, 12.15pm for 12.30pm start. Cost $40 per head and drinks at bar prices. Contact President Keith Ryall on 0418 589 144 for further information and registration •