Fabulous Book Fair UQ Alumni 2024

*Well-read well-loved old books © image Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2024*

My favourite date on the Brisbane booklovers calendar: The University of Queensland Alumni Book Fair 2024 with so much to see, do and read.

Friday 3 May 9:00am thru to Monday 6 May 3:00pm 2024
This year they have even added a special dining event, favourite foods of iconic writers for lunch and dinner—see below or click forthcoming Alumni Events.

Coming soon: More than 110,000 books, magazines, vinyl records, DVDs and other pre-loved literary goodies will be available at this year’s UQ Alumni Book Fair, from as little as $1, to help raise funds for UQ student scholarships and research. Free events location at UQ Centre, St Lucia campus.

Artwork illustrator Tomislav Tomic https://tomislavtomic.com/

“Gifts of friendship: rare books and manuscript treasures in the Fryer Library“
Friday 3 May 2024 6:00pm–7:00pm Alumni event. Hear from Simon Farley, Fryer Librarian, about a selection of treasures held in the Fryer Library including beautiful, rare books and the manuscript papers of great Australian writers including David Malouf, Peter Carey, Thea Astley, and Oodgeroo Noonuccal. Location: UQ St Lucia campus.

Dine like a literary icon – ‘Patina at Alumni Court‘
Monday 29 April 2024 11:00am to Friday 3 May 2024 9:00pm. An Alumni event to mark the 2024 UQ Alumni Book Fair (3–6 May) and they’re celebrating with the favourite foods of iconic writers, Ernest Hemingway and Emily Dickinson.
Available for lunch Monday 29 April and Tuesday 30 April. Available for lunch and dinner from Wednesday 1st to Friday 3rd May 2024. Visit University of Queensland website https://alumni.uq.edu.au/uq-alumni-book-fair

Throughout, there will be diverse music from Mozart to the music of 2024, and a family fun day with free story time sessions, face painting and craft. Those dates again—

Friday 3 May: 9am–9pm
Saturday 4 May: 9am–5pm
Sunday 5 May: 9am–5pm
Monday 6 May: 9am–3pm

Remember the location:
UQ Centre, Union Road, UQ St Lucia Campus

Getting here:
Casual parking is available under the UQ Centre. Paid parking applies between Monday–Friday, 7am–9pm. Parking is FREE on weekends and public holidays. More information about parking at UQ.

St Lucia campus is conveniently accessible by car, BCC buses, ferries and CityCat. I have travelled by all four options with no difficulty. Of course, my heavily laden book haul slowed me down a bit on the return journey.
More information about public transport options.

Please note: You can donate books to UQ throughout the year. Also this information has been retrieved from UQ website so I accept no responsibility for changes to dates, times or information but in my experience events run smoothly. I’ve had some great finds!

Happy reading ❤ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

*Everyone around Australia will read this picture book together! Contact your local library to find out details!*

Host a ‘Great Book Swap’ 2021

The Great Book Swap is a fantastic way to celebrate reading, and raise much-needed funds for remote communities. Schools, workplaces, libraries, universities, book clubs, individuals and all kinds of organisations can host one. The idea is to swap a favourite book in exchange for a gold coin donation.

Here’s a letter from Executive Director Karen Williams—-

“The Great Book Swap is back and registrations for 2021 are now open. Register your school, library or organisation to hold a Great Book Swap anytime throughout the year. Last year the pandemic stopped many individuals, schools and organisations from hosting a Great Book Swap, but we’re hoping 2021 will be our biggest year yet.

“We are aiming to raise $350,000 to gift 35,000 culturally relevant books to children in remote Australia and we need your help! Visit our new-look website, and access some great features and resources to help make fundraising easier, fun and more successful than ever.

“Why not check to see if a Great Book Swap aligns to your organisation’s Reconciliation Action Plan, or you can ask your employer to match donations? It is also a great conversation starter to get teams talking and sharing their reading interests and passions.

“Get ready to celebrate reading, hold your business or organisation to their social responsibilities, and raise funds for an excellent cause.”

REGISTER NOW

Holding the Great Book Swap brought us together as a team, we had a chance to share our love of reading and raise money for an excellent cause.”—-Alice Dickins, Heide Museum of Modern Art.

Thank you for your support.

Happy swapping!

Karen Williams
Executive Director.

“READING OPENS DOORS”
SIGN UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER
Indigenous Literacy Foundation
https://www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au/

I reckon swapping could work for little Street Libraries with a BBQ and live music 🙂

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Drought Ain’t Over Yet

Australian farmers, east and west, north and south are facing challenges on the land. As we head into summer, the drought has reached drastic proportions right across the country. Imagine no water, cattle dying, crops withering and red dust coating everything you touch. We have to think about farmers livelihoods, they put the food on everyone’s table.

So far Rural Aid have…

• Helped over 4500 farmers have registered for various types of assistance.

• 2000 farmers have received Buy-a-Bale hay, currently numbers growing at 30 a week.

• 1000’s of hampers, water trucks, fuel cards and vouchers.

Since 1 July 2018 Rural Aid have…

• Employed 11 mental health counsellors with committed funding of $5.5m over 3 years.

• More than $20m in total cash donations has been accepted by Rural Aid.

• Over 2200 counselling telephone one-on-one calls or face to face visits to farmers in 4 months.

• $3m paid for hay distributed to farmers in need.

• $2.3m paid in freight to deliver the hay.

• $6m for bill relief for farmers.

• Forward commitment to purchase $11m of hay and transport for next 6 months.

• More than $1.2m provided to farmers in the form of gift cards which can be spent locally.

• Expanded their team by 7 people so they can respond to enquiries and provide help faster to those most in need.

Rural Aid have moved 76 and 88 trailers respective, almost 3500 tonnes of hay in the last two weeks alone, delivered to over 300 farmers. This is amazing work by hay teams, truckies and hay producers who are all pulling together, a super support effort. But the battle continues.

Read the blog of a drought-stricken cattle farmer Paula Stevenson
http://paulastevensonwriter.com.au/day-266/

My thoughts into words…

It’s a hard way to earn a living. You can help dedicated farmers to keep growing our country’s food. Consider Farm-sitting, Farm Army volunteering, Farm Rescue groups, buying hay bales or donating to—
Rural Aid www.ruralaid.org.au
Buy-a-Bale www.buyabale.com.au

As Rural Aid wraps up another year, their 2019 calendars are now selling. Help out by placing an order for this great Christmas gift and have it mailed—
Calendar Grab a 2019 calendar

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Indigenous Literacy Day

Indigenous Literacy Day 2018

You have the month of September to sign up to the new Indigenous Literacy Day fundraising campaign and fill your virtual shelf with books for children in remote communities. Participate in the launch on Wednesday 5 September and discover how to fill a bookshelf for children in the remote Australian outback.

It’s something new, something a little different, something the Indigenous Literacy Foundation believes you’ll enjoy sharing with your friends and family, and something that gives you the opportunity of ensuring kids in remote communities have access to quality, new books.

Commencing on Indigenous Literacy Day (5 September 2018) the new ‘Fill a Bookshelf’ fundraising campaign aims to raise $300,000 to help ILF gift 30,000 new books to schools and service organisations in remote communities where books are scarce.

How does it work? The idea is simple…

Sign up online to create a fundraising page and receive an empty virtual bookshelf.
Ask family, friends, colleagues to donate a virtual book to your page (in the form of a donation)
Fill your virtual bookshelf!
Change the lives of Indigenous children.

Your donations will help buy new, carefully selected books for children who have none. To put it quite simply – without your support, in a very real sense – bookshelves in remote Indigenous communities are empty.

All children in Australia deserve the same opportunities – in education, employment, health and wellbeing. Evidence shows that literacy is the pathway to CHOICE for these opportunities, and BOOKS are the building blocks for literacy. If you believe this too, sign up today!

I BELIEVE – SIGN ME UP ‘Fill a Bookshelf’ and celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day!

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation
PO Box 663 Broadway NSW 2007
Australia

Indigenous Literacy Day is a national celebration of Indigenous culture, stories, language and literacy. Indigenous Literacy Day aims to raise awareness of the need to support literacy in remote and isolated Indigenous communities of Australia.