Readers in Prince Albert who are looking for a new biography or a classic piece of fiction will have a chance to find it when the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) opens their doors for the first day of their annual Spring Book Sale on April 17.
The sale will be at a new location in the big blue building between Galaxy Cinema and Montana’s in the South Hill parking lot.
CFUW President Barb Gustafson said they made the change because they couldn’t keep their old location at South Hill Mall. Thankfully, she said, they offered an alternative.
“We’ve been working with the managers (and) the owners at South Hill Mall for many years, and they’ve been really, really great to work with,” Gustafson said.
“This year, they weren’t able to give us the same space that we had had for the last few years, but they offered this alternate space in the blue building near the mall or on the mall parking lot, so we’re certainly happy to continue working with them and appreciate the offer.”
Gustafson said this larger location will allow greater capacity for browsing through thousands of used books.
“It’s apparently about twice the space we had before,” Gustafson said. “We should be able to spread out the books a bit more and make it easier for people to browse.”
CFUW Prince Albert, commonly known as University Women’s Club, has for many years offered the community the opportunity to select gently used books, CDs, and vinyl records at the nine-day sale.
“It’s our major fundraiser of the year,” Gustafson said. “It’s our sole fundraiser. It supports seven scholarships and that includes ones that go to graduating young women from Prince Albert High School.
“Then also we support a provincial grant that goes to a mature student and that is $5,000 in total under the New Beginnings Grant for CFUW Saskatchewan.”
There’s no set price for the items you choose to take home. Instead, you are invited to
make a donation to the CFUW scholarship fund.
Last year, the donations received at the book sale allowed CFUW Prince Albert to award more than $5,000 in scholarships to local students.
“If people have books they want to drop off, want to donate, the book sale is the ideal time to do it, because then they can be sorted into the correct categories,” Gustafson explained. “SHARE has been really great about accepting books during the year, and apparently we’ve got quite a few to sort through from that collection.
“But for anybody that still has a few boxes around their house, bring them to the book sale, drop them off there, and then hopefully also take some time to look through and find some new treasures.”
Donations of books are welcome during the sale. Gustafson said that there are always many volunteers who come out each year to assist.
“They may not be club members, but they are willing to volunteer at the book sale,” she explained. “It really is a lot of work, even though we have the SHARE crew bringing the books. They store the books for us during the time when the sale’s not on and share crew brings the books to the sale site. Then it’s just up to us to unpack them and sort them, but it is still a lot of work at that.”
The sale is assisted by the Optimist Club of Prince Albert, SHARE, South Hill Place and community volunteers.
Gustafson added that an important milestone is coming in 2026 for the organization.
“It will be the 95th anniversary of CFUW Prince Albert this fall,” she said. “We’re very proud of our long-standing in the community, and this just continues to be a way we can help support education.”
