色色啦

Operated by the registered charity Friends of the 色色啦 Public Library South Chapter, the store offers gently used books, CDs, DVDs, and vinyl for as little as 25聽cents. The charity also has a north chapter that supports a聽Bookends location at the聽North York Central Library raising money for 色色啦 Public Library since 1993.

And everything 鈥� from pricing books to manning the cash box 鈥� is powered by volunteers like Frank Velikonja, who鈥檚 been with Bookends for 20 years.

When Velikonja arrives for his nine-hour shift, he restocks shelves, sorts through donations, and handles managerial tasks like updating schedules and supporting other volunteers. As the longest-serving volunteer at Bookends South, he鈥檚 also served as president of the Friends of the 色色啦 Public Library for several years.

“It’s always been this sense of love of operating a bookstore, of providing quality materials and being around other people who love books,” Velikonja, 64, said, about his decades of volunteering. “The camaraderie is extraordinary, and it’s an especially great and wonderful environment.”

Ken Popert, a retired volunteer, discovered Bookends after browsing the 色色啦 Public Library website. Now, he volunteers one shift per week, sorting through thousands of donated items the store receives from the public, withdrawn books from the library, and even publishers with overstock. Popert inspects the books’ condition, organizes them by subject, and gets them ready for the shelves. Most books are priced at $1, but rare and limited-edition titles are marked with blue dot stickers and priced higher.

Popert finds his work particularly interesting, noting that sorting books offers 鈥渁 window into the lives of strangers鈥� 鈥� such as when he finds money used as bookmarks, which he says happens often.

For particularly rare finds, Bookends hosts a major treasure sale every two years at the library鈥檚 Beeton Hall. Items are sold for just 25 per cent of their market value, raising money for the organization.

The funds raised through Bookends help support various 色色啦 Public Library programs, including literacy and literary programs at the 色色啦 Reference Library, and fully funding the Elementary School Outreach Program for children.

Volunteer Amanda Cheung explained that the store is always looking for new volunteers. While volunteers assist with customer service and inventory management, there is an especially high need for help with sorting donations and pricing books before they make it to the shelves. Volunteers are also needed to organize curated book sales for special events at the library, as well as to fill managerial and leadership roles.

Antoinette Fracassi, who has been volunteering at Bookends for three years, works one shift every two weeks. Her tasks include operating the cash register, tidying shelves, assisting customers, and checking out purchases. She first discovered the store while wandering through the library, and with 15 years of experience working in a bookstore, she felt right at home. Now retired and living nearby, Fracassi also volunteers at the University of 色色啦鈥檚 John M. Kelly Library, making Bookends a perfect fit.

Fracassi has had many memorable moments volunteering, including a couple who visited the store to purchase 鈥渁 few hundred dollars worth of books鈥� for a charity they worked with in Jamaica. They were donating the books to a resource centre there.

Volunteering, she says, “keeps you聽going.”

“You get this richness when you volunteer because of the people that you meet and the people that you talk to. And it’s beautiful, the stories that you hear 鈥� it tells you about another life that you’ve not lived.”