Posted 3:56 pm Sunday, October 19, 2008
Smith County Medical Society Alliance Book Fair Planned
By MAEGAN MCGOWEN
Feature Writer
Stacks and stacks of books, carefully organized and labeled, are ready for the Smith County Medical Society Alliance's Book Fair, Thursday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Book Fair building, 4410 DC Drive.
Feature Writer
Stacks and stacks of books, carefully organized and labeled, are ready for the Smith County Medical Society Alliance's Book Fair, Thursday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Book Fair building, 4410 DC Drive.
This year is the Book Fair's 40th anniversary as the Alliance's chief fundraiser.
"Seventy-five percent of the money we raise from the Book Fair goes toward scholarships and 25 percent is for outside projects," said Dr. Dani Dolence, president of the Smith County Medical Alliance.
According to Dr. Dolence, the idea for the Book Fair was conceived in 1968 under the Presidency of Lily Mc Neel, with the encouragement of Chris Selman, Sally Mullowney, Louise Goss, Francis Birdwell, Nita Goldsmith, Kathryn Allen and others.
The first fundraiser took months to organize and was a huge success, but members had nowhere to store the books except in the backs of their cars and different sites around Tyler.
In 1975, A E Dennis, a landowner and businessman, proposed that the Alliance buy a building he would build for them on a piece of land he would donate, on DC Drive, just off Southwest Loop 323.
President Anne Primer went to the Medical Society to get the doctors to contribute, and the building was built, all for $10,000.
"We've been around a long time," Mrs. Dolence said. "People around here know us. We sell good books for good prices, and you wouldn't believe the number of people that come to the Book Fair. And it is like a fair, we have a lot of fun."
This year, the SCMSA are busily dusting, sorting and shelving thousands of donated books that will be priced from $1 to $450, with most books selling for $2.
"We had a first edition of "Gone With the Wind," which was our highest selling book yet," Mrs. Dolence said. "We have all kinds of books, from history to fiction to romance novels."
More than $450,000 was given locally for scholarships to deserving area students majoring in the Health Sciences.
Both the University of Texas at Tyler and Tyler Junior College received a Presidential endowment for scholarships, and once a year, the group meets to award SCMSA yearly scholarships (about 16 in total) to other deserving students with Health Science majors.
This year the Alliance is beginning an endowment of $25,000 toward a scholarship for a deserving graduate student in the new Masters of Nursing program at UT Tyler.
"The Book Fair is a way for us, as spouses of physicians, to interact with the community and encourage them to read," Dr. Dolence said. "It's our main way of raising funds for the scholarships, and those scholarships promote study in the health sciences."
The next Book Fair will be scheduled for April 2-4. For more information on the October or April Book Fairs, call 903-561-1353.
