Over the weekend of 26 to 28 May 2023, Polofields Crossing held the Winter Bookfair in support of HospiceWits. Once again, the bookfair was a great success and we raised some much needed funds that will go towards providing care and support to the communities in and around Johannesburg and Soweto.
One of our biggest crowd pleasers this year was the brand new ‘blind date with a book’ concept. Books were carefully wrapped up and a brief description placed on the wrapper. Visitors were delighted at this, and these ‘blind date’ books flew off the shelves! We will definitely bring the ‘blind date with a book’ back for our next bookfair next year for readers to enjoy.
We raised over R50 000 with the Winter Bookfair, and around 2 500 books were sold in total. “The set up was excellent, creating a great customer service experience for all those that spent time buying our books,” says Jackie Kaye, HospiceWits CEO.
Our writing competition also returned as a Bookfair favourite and we received a number of fantastic entries. Entrants had to choose from six pictures of HospiceWits shop items and base their stories or poems on that item.
Winners of the competition are Belinda Cave in third place with her short story entitled The Best Loved Gem and in second place, Panayiota Ryall with a delightful poem called Fairies. The winner of the writers’ competition is Charlotte Manda with her short story Into Yesterday.
Polofields Crossing and HospiceWits are delighted with the popularity and success of the book fairs held both in 2022 and 2023. Keep an eye on our social media for announcements on any future book fairs, and perhaps, a return of another exciting writing competition!
We would like to thank Polofields Crossing for hosting the Winter Bookfair and especially tenants such as Jonsson Workwear, Hirschs that handed out fresh coffee, Clicks and SUPERSPAR – which collect many superb books. We also thank Jaiman van Staden who took to the decks as our DJ and Teamfinity for sponsoring prizes for the Harold Fry competition. And last, but not least, we extend our gratitude to the volunteers and supporters who came through to purchase books on the day.
