Downtown Community Ministry's Stephanie McIntyre: Success for book fair.

NEW ZEALAND’S biggest book fair has paid off for Wellington’s Downtown Community Ministry, ministry director Stephanie McIntyre says.

Four and a half thousand people came to find book bargains on the first day, with a further 3000 on the second, ensuring  the weekend event made over $116,000 for the charity.

The fair, in the TSB Bank Arena, will likely reach the budgeted amount of $120,000 once the remaining book sets are auctioned in coming months.

Ms McIntyre says last year the ministry made a record $135,000, but income predictions were a bit more conservative this year.

The money goes into general funds and, for the director of the agency, this is “fantastic” because it is a “significant dollop of income that …is open ended” rather than tightly targeted.

The jester - Graham Booth - was MC at the fair.

The ministry is a social and community agency aiming to meet the needs of worst-off people. A ministry team has served Wellington for 40 years.

The work is largely focused on the homeless and people with long-term alcohol dependencies – “people in pretty dire straits,” says Ms McIntyre.

The agency has a staff of 10, some of whom have been service users. One person who works in the food bank, and the cleaner, for example, are service users.

More than 200 volunteers help out with the book fair. Helpers include local police, staff from businesses such as banks, and even some of the people the ministry has helped out.

About 80,000 second-hand books are donated each year, although this year the number was slightly down while still raising a hefty sum.

“That probably means we were a bit better at culling them,” says Ms McIntyre. “It also means the calibre of books …is really high, so [the book fair] has got a good reputation as having very good stuff.”