Wild Books for the Pickin’
Garden Festival release grows to Miracle-Grow® proportions
by kz4ufoNovember 30, 2005
Several months ago I planted a seed to BookCrossers about my plans to have a BookCrossing booth at the annual Garden Festival at Heathcote Botanical Gardens in Fort Pierce, Florida. Well, that seed grew from a goal of three hundred books to an orchard
of eight hundred books. And thus, the Garden of Readin’ booth was born.
The large booth space was partially tented, with tables covered in burlap and decorated with rocks, pine, grass, straw and used seed packets. The books were arranged by genre in plant trays with seed packets and plant stakes identifying each genre.
Additional display material included a garden fence with tools, gloves, plants, seed packets, baskets and watering cans. The booth was designed to appear in line with professional retail vendors and yet creatively appeal to the garden theme. It truly was the Garden of Readin’.
The Garden of Readin’ (BookCrossing) Booth at the 18th Annual Garden Festival in Fort Pierce, Florida was a big hit, despite threats of a tropical storm. Visitors found a selection of 800 free books to choose from.
It took eight hours to set up and decorate the booth the day prior to the festival. The first morning of the festival, it took almost three hours to sort and arrange the books in the plant trays.
On Saturday, as festival visitors found their way to the Garden of Readin’ booth - the initial responses of “How much are the books?” turned to “Why do this? Why all this work to give away things?” Booth volunteers – Andrea (cheeseball), Carlissa (carlissa), Corrinne, Don (Mr. DQandDQS), Holly (kz4ufo) and Susie (DQandDQS) were quick to point out that BookCrossers believe in giving away books.
At one point, there were twenty-seven visitors browsing the booth for books at one time! The overall response was overwhelming. People loved the booth, were amazed at the generosity involved, and thought the whole idea was amazing.
Around four-hundred and fifty books were handed out, as well as bookmarks, seed packets, coloring pages, bookmarks, pens, pencils, flyers, magazines, and book covers.
After lunchtime on Saturday, Tim (timfla) and Cheryl arrived to help with the booth. Unfortunately, those two brought the rain with them (okay, maybe not intentionally!) and we found ourselves scrambling to cover up the books outside the booth. While waiting it out, the decision was made to close up the booth for the night. Books were arranged back in water tight containers and stored above the tables in case the rain continued through the night.
In the middle of a downpour – Debi (spazcat) and Mike (Mr. spazcat) surprised us - driving all the way from sunny Orlando to get soaked in the rain in Fort Pierce! Although I feel sorry they drove all the way for nothing, I am glad to have met spazcat and her husband as they have contributed so much to my releases and it was a pleasure to meet them and get a big hug to boot!
As it continued to rain through Saturday night, I found myself sleepless and paranoid that the books were floating into the Atlantic Ocean. On Sunday morning, I arrived at the festival three hours prior to opening. The rain was reduced to a miserable drizzle and a plan was devised to bring the entire display inside the tent.
After re-designing the booth and re-sorting the books, the gates opened to visitors. Despite the threat of more rain, Don (Mr. DQandDQS), Gloria, Holly (kz4ufo), Susie (DQandDQS) and Marvin gave away an additional four hundred books on Sunday!
Was it worth all the time and effort to give away this many books? Oh yes! In fact, it is rather contagious. Two festival visitors who approached me on Saturday returned on Sunday with books to add to the booth! And…another Florida BookCrosser is going to approach her local botanical gardens about having a mass release during their festival…
If you plant a BookCrossing seed, be prepared to watch it grow to Miracle-Grow® size proporations!
Afterthought:
And, did I mention the BookCrossing.com Scarecrow entered in the Scarecrow Gala? No? So I probably did not mention our scarecrow winning the contest the second year in a row? And…did I neglect to mention that I was dressed up as Holly Hobbie the entire weekend? I did? Well, I guess I will just have another article or two to write! ;)
The large booth space was partially tented, with tables covered in burlap and decorated with rocks, pine, grass, straw and used seed packets. The books were arranged by genre in plant trays with seed packets and plant stakes identifying each genre.
Additional display material included a garden fence with tools, gloves, plants, seed packets, baskets and watering cans. The booth was designed to appear in line with professional retail vendors and yet creatively appeal to the garden theme. It truly was the Garden of Readin’.
The Garden of Readin’ (BookCrossing) Booth at the 18th Annual Garden Festival in Fort Pierce, Florida was a big hit, despite threats of a tropical storm. Visitors found a selection of 800 free books to choose from.
It took eight hours to set up and decorate the booth the day prior to the festival. The first morning of the festival, it took almost three hours to sort and arrange the books in the plant trays.
On Saturday, as festival visitors found their way to the Garden of Readin’ booth - the initial responses of “How much are the books?” turned to “Why do this? Why all this work to give away things?” Booth volunteers – Andrea (cheeseball), Carlissa (carlissa), Corrinne, Don (Mr. DQandDQS), Holly (kz4ufo) and Susie (DQandDQS) were quick to point out that BookCrossers believe in giving away books.
At one point, there were twenty-seven visitors browsing the booth for books at one time! The overall response was overwhelming. People loved the booth, were amazed at the generosity involved, and thought the whole idea was amazing.
Around four-hundred and fifty books were handed out, as well as bookmarks, seed packets, coloring pages, bookmarks, pens, pencils, flyers, magazines, and book covers.
After lunchtime on Saturday, Tim (timfla) and Cheryl arrived to help with the booth. Unfortunately, those two brought the rain with them (okay, maybe not intentionally!) and we found ourselves scrambling to cover up the books outside the booth. While waiting it out, the decision was made to close up the booth for the night. Books were arranged back in water tight containers and stored above the tables in case the rain continued through the night.
In the middle of a downpour – Debi (spazcat) and Mike (Mr. spazcat) surprised us - driving all the way from sunny Orlando to get soaked in the rain in Fort Pierce! Although I feel sorry they drove all the way for nothing, I am glad to have met spazcat and her husband as they have contributed so much to my releases and it was a pleasure to meet them and get a big hug to boot!
As it continued to rain through Saturday night, I found myself sleepless and paranoid that the books were floating into the Atlantic Ocean. On Sunday morning, I arrived at the festival three hours prior to opening. The rain was reduced to a miserable drizzle and a plan was devised to bring the entire display inside the tent.
After re-designing the booth and re-sorting the books, the gates opened to visitors. Despite the threat of more rain, Don (Mr. DQandDQS), Gloria, Holly (kz4ufo), Susie (DQandDQS) and Marvin gave away an additional four hundred books on Sunday!
Was it worth all the time and effort to give away this many books? Oh yes! In fact, it is rather contagious. Two festival visitors who approached me on Saturday returned on Sunday with books to add to the booth! And…another Florida BookCrosser is going to approach her local botanical gardens about having a mass release during their festival…
If you plant a BookCrossing seed, be prepared to watch it grow to Miracle-Grow® size proporations!
Afterthought:
And, did I mention the BookCrossing.com Scarecrow entered in the Scarecrow Gala? No? So I probably did not mention our scarecrow winning the contest the second year in a row? And…did I neglect to mention that I was dressed up as Holly Hobbie the entire weekend? I did? Well, I guess I will just have another article or two to write! ;)
