January is upon us and as 2025 begins it is time for the bookshop volunteer team to take a look back at the previous year and reflect on all the wonderful things we've achieved and been involved in. The "community" part of our bookshop name is absolutely vital to us and it underpins everything that we do. This year has been our busiest ever and we thought that we would share some of this with you so that you can see where your money goes when you shop with us.

 

And, not forgetting the fact that we are open Monday to Saturday in the heart of our wee town. Orb's Community Bookshop is run and managed entirely by a team of dedicated, knowledgeable, passionate and hardworking volunteers, most of whom are also heavily involved in other work around the town. This really is the most remarkable team of people and it is impossible to state how extraordinary it is to be part of the Orb's family - a group of people who together have achieved so much.

 

We wish to thank all of our volunteers, customers, and supporters for making all of this magic happen. 

Happy new year, and lang may oor lum reek!

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This is just a snapshot of the extra work we do beyond keeping our doors open and bringing affordable books to the heart of our community. We know that there is more to add but we simply can't list everything we do!

 

March 2024 - World Book Day fortnight/community outreach:
We purchased 1250 World Book Day books, which were given away free to primary aged
children. Our children's event coordinator and her crew visited 12 local schools (Kennethmont, Gordon Primary, Rhynie, Tough,
Tullynessle, Drumblade, Cairnie, Glass, Chapel of Garioch, Westhill, Largue and
Kellands in Inverurie)

• On World Book Day (March 7th) the bookshop hosted 60 children from Kennethmont School, with

• various fun activities and opportunities to browse

• Ran ‘pop-up’ bookshops in Gordon Primary, Rhynie, Drumblade, Carnie, Glass,

• Chapel of Garioch and Westhill – giving children the opportunity to experience

• visiting a bookshop, which many have not done before.

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As well as the World Book Day events our other outreach with schools included

• Supporting Rhynie school. We helped to revamp their school library.

• Supporting Insch School. With guidance from our children's books expert the school library was revamped.

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Scottish Festival of Illustration - August/September

As well as many of our volunteer team giving up hundreds of extra hours to support the festival, the Bookshop gave direct and significant financial sponsorship. The main organiser of the event was herself a bookshop volunteer, Helen Bate, and we thank her for her idea and her dedication to making this event happen. 

Some festival figures
o 800 children passed through the festival doors and attended various workshops and events. Thanks should also be given to Number 30 and to Square Deal for their wonderful spaces.
o On the main Hairst day (Sat Sept 7th) nearly 1,000 people passed through the gallery exhibition area
o Hundreds of volunteer hours were spent organising and running the event, manning the gallery shop, etc.
o Bookshop also provided the PC and point-of-sale equipment to man the gallery shop and manage stock and sales.

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George MacDonald events - 2024

As 2024 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Huntly-born author George MacDonald, the bookshop engaged in a year of celebrating this remarkable writer's work. The Scottish Illustration Festival had a core central theme celebrating the illustrators who had brought MacDonald's work to life for two centuries. 

The bookshop also hosted a very special day when the delegates from the George Macdonald conference in St Andrews came to the town to visit. Bookshop volunteers organised a full display at Number 30, as well as coordinating with the library service to have items on display from the George MacDonald archive. The bookshop itself opened especially on the Sunday to be the central point for the delegates. Feedback from this event was overwhelmingly positive and delegates from all over the world fell in love with Huntly!

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In December we also celebrated George MacDonald's birthday by welcoming to the bookshop the next generation of local writers and poets when we hosted the prize-giving for the 9th annual Brian Nisbet Poetry Award. The poets had been inspired by the life and work of George MacDonald and the ceremony and celebration was a fitting end to a year focussing on the work of our local literary giant.

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Summer and Autumn and Winter Bookshop family events:

• Monster Hunt competition: 900 monster vouchers distributed during August, redeemable for £1 against a new book. £20 bookshop voucher prize for winners of the competition

• Scarecrow Competition: organised by volunteer Marianne Meeds and co-ordinated with the bookshop. £384 raised for the GRA Baby bank, which the bookshop topped up to £400.

• Facepainting at the Hairst – fun activity for children

• Children's author Gaynor Andrews visited in December and we had a free event to decorate a Christmas tree ornament and coorie in with festive stories

• Clive the Penguin free giveaway event! Two free adorable Clive plushies and books have now gone to live with new owners

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Bookshop donations/support for community events/fundraisers

When finances allow we also make donations for local raffles and fundraising events. In 2024 we supported the following:

• Deveron Way Care Home: Christmas Fair Fundraising Event - bookshop voucher prize

• National Trust for Scotland : £100 donation for the supply of 12 unwanted stacking chairs

• PTA Primary One Nativity Hamper - bookshop voucher prize

• St Andrew’s Glass Kirk books sale fundraiser - £100 for a selection of books

• Ordiquhil Primary School and Nursery Parent Council, Bingo night fundraising event - bookshop voucher

• Aberdeen Students Charities Campaign - fundraising events – book voucher prizes

• Gordon Schools Former Pupils Association – donation

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Support for local authors, including book launch events

2024 was a great year for Orb's Authors events and we hosted book launches and events from bestselling authors Heather Critchlow, Vikki Patis, Morven May Macallam, Maggie Craig, and Gaynor Andrews.

We had many requests for early evening events and these proved very popular with the bookshop being cosy and full for our book launch events. We love that we have been able to fund all of these events ourselves and thus keep them free to attend (and we even throw in a free fly-cup and funcy piece!) It has been wonderful seeing how many people appreciate a booky event and this has given us the confidence to move forward with even more events for 2025!

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As well as our events we also have a commitment to continue to support important locoal books and local authors. This year we also included the following in our community efforts:

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• We paid full RRP for books by Harold Murray and Brian Thomson as all profits of these books are being given to dementia charities. These were very popular and have had to be regularly re-stocked to keep up with demand. We are very happy to have been able to offer an essential sales platform for these fundraising books.

• We gave a financial grant to support local historian Patrick Scott republish the latest edition of his essential book of local history - The History of Strathbogie

• We continue to provide an outlet for many local authors, helping to bring their books directly to the public, including: Gordon M Hay (Doric translations of Old and New Testaments, Doric Nursery Rhymes, etc.), Aaron Gale/Doric Books (several Doric children’s books,etc.), Brian P. Innes (Doric for Abidy), Mike Gibb (Songs of the North-East and Heroines of the North-East), Morven May Macallam (Finding Joy and Keeping Joy), Doric translation of Whudderin Heichts (Linda Smith), Heather Critchlow (Unburied, Unsound, Unsolved), Patrick Scott, Ann Dean, Great North of Scotland Railway Association (Moray Firth Coast Line), Claire Alldritt (From East to West by Saddle is Best and A Cairngorm Loop on the Hoof), Victoria Hawthorne, Maggie Craig, R. Llewellyn-Brown (retired local vet) plus multiple books by several members of Huntly Writers and many, many more.

• Support for local artists: Cally Smith (Colourwax cards), Judith McPhun (handrawn Huntlyscenes on cards), Fi Thomson (pencil sketches

• Support for the local Seed Library which is housed at the bookshop throughout the growing and planting seasons. Funded by the Huntly Greenspace Collective.

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Hope you enjoyed this snapshot of 2024 - here's to lots more in 2025!

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