Book Sale Volunteer Discovers Cash In A Hollow Book, Then Stuns Everyone With Her Next Move

book sale volunteer discovers cash in a hollow book then stuns everyone with her next move a reader lives a thousand lives through the pages of a book if you're an avid bookworm then you probably understand why reading is one of life's greatest pleasures reading not only keeps you mentally stimulated but it also allows you to improve your memory books are treasure troves of knowledge indeed but sometimes they may come with hidden gems underneath their plain looking covers books are a crucial part of our lives but when you want to donate them what are you supposed to do for some reason getting rid of our beloved books is no easy task but every now and then we feel the need to declutter our homes from novels and books that we have already read twice so where do you go there are many volunteer organizations that accept book donations and clothes volunteer non-profit service association inc is one of them the phoenix arizona group of volunteers work all year long handling donations and collecting more than 600 thousand books from donors for some the vnsa is the largest charity used book sale in the southwest once they received a large number of books the group of 130 plus volunteers makes sure to sort them price them out and get them ready for the big event that takes place in february kathy mcallister a retired school teacher is among the pristine group of volunteers who get the books ready for their february sale kathy pretty much runs the show she coordinates all of the other volunteers and makes sure every link in the chain runs smoothly throughout the event like a well-oiled machine they make sure to supply people with affordable books while raising money at the same time for local charities such as literacy volunteers of maricopa county and the arizona friends of foster children foundation right before the 2019 book sale kathy found herself volunteering once again she was going through a pile of books when suddenly she stumbled upon a beaten down version of edward gibbons the decline and fall of the roman empire which really caught her eye all things considered the book was in pretty good condition but kathy already had found three of these books in the past and they were less worn down clearly the book needed to be repurposed so she threw it into the repurposing pile being a major bookworm herself kathy couldn't shake the feeling that a perfectly good book like that should not be discarded just like that before she tossed the book for good she decided to check to see if it truly was unsalvageable much to her surprise she noticed there was something stuck between the pages when kathy opened the cover she realized there was a hollowed-out portion of the book that seemed to be hiding something clearly someone had fetched a knife and carefully carved a significant space in order to stash something inside unbeknownst to her the book kathy was holding in her hands was hiding a little secret she told bookstore i had the book in my hands but she was getting ready to throw it out into the repulping pile she had a change of heart she said i was ready to toss it because we had several copies already but when i fanned the book out there's a big hole carved out in the book amongst the pages that's when kathy realized there was something hidden inside the hollowed-out space and whatever it was it kind of looked like bills at first glance kathy figured out she had found a stash of monopoly money inside the book maybe a child had shoved it inside perhaps they were playing a trick on someone or it was part of a scavenger hunt but when she reached out and pulled out the monopoly money her heart started racing the money was real kathy was holding legit 100 dollar bills in her hands inside the book kathy found a total of four packages that were banded the same way a band does when you withdraw money each of these little packages contained 10 100 bills for some reason someone had decided to stash four thousand dollars inside the decline and fall of the roman empire book kathy couldn't help but wonder if the original owner was even looking for the money wow this is enough money to fund a supplemental charity said kathy as soon as she composed herself after the initial shock kathy didn't even think about keeping the money as she felt it didn't align with her faith my values were grounded in our faith she said the thought of keeping all of the money to herself wasn't something that would have ever crossed her mind kathy's views were deeply grounded in her faith she explained that the church taught us what was right from wrong it just becomes who you are after a while all religious beliefs aside anyone in her position would have been inclined to try to find the rightful owners after all they could have been looking for it already now kathy needed to find a way to track them down fortunately the planets lined and kathy found clues that would help her track the owners inside the book she found a family letter that was addressed to the owners children and their spouses luckily the letter also featured the name of its previous owner the previous owner had a unique last name which made tracking them down a bit easier kathy ended up putting her fbi skills to the test by doing a little digging around online fortunately she didn't have to wait too long after only a few minutes she tracked them down apparently the money belonged to an unsuspecting man and his daughter who are about to get the shock of their lives kathy agreed to meet up with the owner's son-in-law who quickly made arrangements for the family to pick up the money kathy would have loved to meet the family at her place but she was working at the warehouse trying to work on the finishing touches before the show funnily enough the man's father-in-law didn't even remember he'd stashed the money inside the book in the first place the family was thrilled and beyond grateful that kathy had gone above and beyond trying to find them and now they felt like it was their turn to give back and spread some kindness by making a large donation to the volunteer non-profit service association soon enough the story spread like wildfire unsurprisingly locals and news stations took an interest in the story and they wasted no time in asking questions kathy's selfless actions sort of turned her into an internet celebrity overnight some people were interested to know what made her want to look for the rightful owners instead of keeping the money to herself kathy simply responded i don't know how you would sleep at night the annual vnsa book sale finally opened its doors on february 9 2019. the volunteers were curious to know how people would react after the media broke kathy's story would customers start looking through every book to see if there was money stashed inside but people seemed to be unaffected by the story while they were touched to see the kindness spreading around the world they were too busy looking for a great deal on some used books i don't think that anybody else will find four thousand dollars in a book but books are a great gift with or without four thousand dollars says kathy for 63 years the volunteer nonprofit service association has been raising funds to donate to community programs the vnsa opened its doors in 1949 and ever since then they've been saving and repurposing books and reselling them at great prices according to the non-profit organization's site the dollars donated to community programs has increased significantly over the years since the first vnsa used book sale in 1957 vnsa has returned more than five million three hundred thousand dollars to local non-profit human service agencies in our community clearly we need more organizations willing to spread around the love for books and more selfless people like kathy mcallister [Music] you