BOOK lovers have ensured Lifeline Central West can train more crisis supporters to meet the growing number of calls for help.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The organisation's book fair was held at Bathurst Showground from Friday through to Sunday.
Around 40,000 books were spread across two rooms, ensuring there was plenty of space for everyone to flick through the titles while social distancing.
Lifeline Central West executive director Alex Ferguson said it was one of the biggest book fairs to date.
"We've had the best two days we've ever had," he said Sunday morning.
"It's a significant improvement on past years."
He estimated around 5000 people had visited the fair by Sunday morning.
ALSO MAKING NEWS:
A new addition to the event this year was a VIP seniors day on Friday, an event giving older members of the community an exclusive look at all the books.
"It was a great day and it will become a permanent fixture of the book fair," Mr Ferguson said.
All of the books were donated and Lifeline volunteers were sorting them throughout the pandemic.
They were priced between 50 cents and $10, with the money spent on training volunteers to answer calls to the 13 11 14 hotline.
It costs $4000 to $4500 to train a volunteer, Mr Ferguson said, and, with calls to Lifeline rising, it's vital to get more people on the phones.
"The Lifeline Australian 13 11 14 call rate pre-COVID, pre-fires probably, was about 2200 a day. It's now up around 3400 a day and the volunteer model has to be increased to increase the call to answer rate," he said.
"... Every bit of loose change we get at Lifeline goes into training our volunteers."
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.westernadvocate.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News