Members of the Concordia Stingers Men’s Rugby Team helped set up and tear down the fair. From left to right: Elliot Quimbrot, Calvin Mazloum, Cam Pouw, Alex McNicholl, Keyon Cyrus, Breandan Mackenzie, Cameron Harte, Luca Favasoli.
Satisfied customers were easy to find at the 2023 Concordia EPIC Used Book Fair.
The Concordia EPIC Used Book Fair had been on hiatus since its 2019 edition due to the pandemic. Since January 2023, dozens of student volunteers, as well as 15 retirees and members of the Concordia Pensioners' Association, came together for weekly sorting sessions. Books were donated by professors, retirees, alumni and students.
“It is thanks to the Office of the VP, Services and Sustainability, which provided a new accessible a venue to store and sort the books, that we could tackle the sheer volume of donations,” says the event’s second volunteer co-leader, Jeanne Bisson, assistant to the president, Office of the President.
“We are especially grateful to the Distribution Services team that transported palettes of books in and out of storage for making this logistically-challenging undertaking possible.”
Of the funds raised, $5,000 will go towards the Student Emergency and Food Fund, which provides financial support, in the form of grocery store gift cards, to students experiencing food insecurity. Remaining funds will go to student scholarships, including a scholarship for a student athlete.
Some 16 players from the Concordia Stingers men’s rugby team helped set up and tear down the fair while more than 60 other students, alumni and retirees volunteered for the two-day event.
The book fair would not be possible without the help of dozens of volunteers. From left to right: Mary Chamorro, TESL student, Juliana Rueda, BA 21, Luke Quin, BA 07, event co-leader, Antoniya Encheva, TESL student, Jeanne Bisson, event co-leader, and Denise Karelis.