social sevice | Alan Irwin's Blog

Every year, the Santa Barbara branch of Planned Parenthood puts on a big used book sale as a fundraiser. This thing is HUGE, taking up a large hall in the local Earl Warren Showgrounds. It’s pretty well organized with the books divided into categories, lots of tables, and boxes and boxes of books. A book browser’s dream.

They start on a Thursday night with a special preview. You pay to get in on that night (this year, September 21) for a first crack at all the books. They also serve some food. Harriet attended that event and had a great time elbowing through all the dealers. She came back with the first box of books.

This thing goes for nine days! We each went back individually and together. We brought back a couple more boxes of books. Then, on the Sunday a week later (yesterday, October 1) they have a 1/2 price sale to try and get rid of the last of the books. We were there again and got 2 more boxes of books.

I’m telling you, no willpower. All we needed was the excuse “it’s for a good cause” and all inhibitions are lost.

I’ve been involved with the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center since 1985, serving on the Board of Directors, President of the Board, volunteer at fundraising events, computer nerd, and donor. Over those years, the agency has been at several locations, but for most of my active years it was at 111 North Milpas Street. It’s a lovely house, but it’s also old with rats and plumbing problems, and the landlords were a pain-in-the-ass to deal with. I know that it was becoming more and more uncomfortable over the years, and quite a bit of board time was spent trying to find a new, better location.

Thursday evening they had an open house at their new location. It’s a big space, consisting of the lower floor of a two story building on Canon Perdido Street. It looks great inside. They really spent a lot of time brightening up the interior. It doesn’t have a lot of windows or views outside, but they have the interior set up with lots of lights and light colors. And the two rooms with windows are the reception area and the training space, so your typically entry into the center is very welcoming and uplifting. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of it, yet. I may add one, later.

A lot of people attended the opening, including the local gaggle of politicos. The agency is doing quite well, and it serves as a testiment to the hard work and smart decisions made by the board, staff, and volunteers. Great job!