Book Sale Raises Funds for Local Youth Football Programs

The North Shore Youth Football program is raising money for helmets, pads, jerseys and scholarships through an ongoing book sale being held at a formerly vacant retail space in Evanston’s Main Street Marketplace Shopping Center.

For the last two weeks, volunteers and children involved in the football program have set up and manned the store in the hope of selling the nearly 350,000 donated books stacked onsite at 2422 Main St.

The North Shore Youth Football program comprises seven teams for players ranging in age from five to 15 and is under the Pop Warner umbrella. The traveling tackle football program attracts players from 12 different towns, including Wilmette, Evanston, Chicago and Buffalo Grove.

The extensive collection of books for sale was donated by Triumph Books, which advertises itself as “the leader in sports publishing,” after a parent involved in the North Shore program had a connection to the publisher. Additionally, the retail space was rented free of charge by Bond Companies, a Los Angeles-based real estate developer with Chicago offices, which owned the property.

Scott Clayborne, administrator for the North Shore Youth Football teams, said that since the operation is run by volunteers, the space donated and the books provided nearly free of charge, almost all sales will be profit.

Clayborne said he is unsure how much money he expects the sale to bring in because this is the first time the program has staged a fundraising effort of this type, but that any amount would help the organization reach its goal of providing financial assistance to every player who needs it.

“We don’t go on any sort of positive numbers [on the books],” Clayborne said. “The idea is that we use the money that we have coming in for the things that we need. It could be extra equipment, it could be t-shirts, it could be jerseys, it could be scholarships. We haven’t made the decision on what it is all going to be used for but we know one thing, that the kids who need to be scholarshipped will be scholarshipped.”

Clayborne said that providing scholarships to all the children who need them can be expensive; it costs $600 to play for a team, and if even 20 percent of the nearly 180 children involved in the North Shore program need assistance, that could run over $20,000. It is for this reason, Clayborne said, that scholarships and financial aid make up the team’s second highest annual cost.

In addition to raising money for the North Shore program, the sale could benefit another local team, as well.

Though all profits from books sold in store will go to North Shore, the program is allowing members of the Evanston Raiders, another team under the Pop Warner umbrella, to sell books on consignment by taking titles out of the store at no cost in the hopes the team will start its own sale.

Clayborne said that so far, the Raiders have not taken full advantage of the opportunity.

The book sale is open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will continue indefinitely until the vast majority of the books are sold or the space is rented to a paying lessee.

Clayborne said that the sale has raised “a few thousand dollars” to date.