Warwick Smith/Stuff
This usual chaos of hunting at the Red Cross Book Sale was reduced to a three-month browse after Covid-19 halted the annual three-day sale this year. Sale manager Jill Spicer said the venture had raised about $40,000 for Red Cross projects, well below the $140,000 the traditional sale usually raised, which was attributed to the reduced number of books that could be displayed in the smaller space. A spokeswoman for the charity said it was a learning curve for Red Cross that large fundraising events such as the street appeal in March or the book sale could not be blindly relied on to bring in cash.