The 2nd Annual EGO and COW Book & Bake Sale

Take heart literature lovers, for reasonably priced books and baked goods will always sell. The English Graduate Student Organization and Council of Writers held their second annual fundraiser to great success, exceeding last year's total by nearly 600 big ones. Thanks to the efforts of the English Department and its supporters we managed to raise 1,500 dollars for this year's events! Every last penny will help ensure our grad student organization run events will continue to flourish and grow in scale. Even the Appalachian Prison Books Project made off with some new books, gratis.

EGO plans to put their funds toward the Spring 2010 Graduate Student Colloquium. Our event will bring a nationally recognized speaker to campus and host graduate students from parts near and far in a conference for the exchange of creative and critical work in fields of English. COW will be hosting the wonderful Dinty Moore for a reading and workshop this Spring.

It was an eventful twenty-four hours including, but not limited to: lifting, sorting, baking, pricing, tasting, wrapping, selling, running, raffling, adventuring in a cargo van after shopping carts (borrowed with PERMISSION), one man in a Guy Fawkes mask (identity unknown) and lots and lots of coffee. Many thanks are due to all those who baked, donated books, volunteered their time and shopped the sale and I'll do my best to credit them all here. If I overlook someone I promise it wasn't on purpose and beg you to add that person's due thanks in the comments.

Special thanks to: Rebecca Schwab, who organized a gorgeous bake sale (yes, it was gorgeous); Lindsey Joyce for designing and distributing our fetching flyer; Sarah Einstein, for making sure the volunteers were fed and caffeinated; Kori Frazier for PR services; Doug Terry, enlister of volunteers extraordinaire (second year running!); Andrea Bebell, van co-pilot and WVU Press liaison; Erin Johns, her husband Mike and Sohinee Roy, room set-up and table wranglers; Tim Adams for the mother-load of book donations and Amanda Riley for assistance with the locating and relocating of said cache.

Thanks goes to Macall Allen (our WBOY "in" and lovely wife of PhD student James Holsinger) for getting the sale on channel 12. To Rhonda Prisner (talented mother of PhD student Kayla Kreuger) for yet again making us the most beautiful baskets of homemade soaps and other goodies to raffle off. JoAnn Dadisman deserves special thanks from all of us and her students for treating the latter to the baked goods of their choice on her tab. JoAnn, they looked more than thrilled to be getting a sugar rush on the house. And thank you to Mary Ann Samyn for allowing us to sell copies of her new book Beauty Breaks In.

Thanks to the Talented Bakers of the department: Charity Gingerich, Jessica Duda, Ashley Kunsa, Jason Markins, Sohinee Roy, Erin Johns, Teresa Pershing, Heather Frese, Elissa Hoffman, Layla Al-Bedawi, Bryan Coyle, Christina Rothenbeck, Rachel King, Kelly Sundberg, Rebecca Schwab, Allison Hitt, Tori Moore, Cari Carpenter, and JoAnn Dadisman.

Thanks to all those who helped set-up, work, and tear down the sale: Maggie Hannan, Irina Rodimsteva, Nevena Stojanovic, Andrea Bebell, Danielle Ryle, James Greene, Kristen Davis, Patrick Faller, Katherine Harclerode, Micah Holmes, Courtney Novosat, Bryan Coyle, Teresa Pershing, Bryan Coyle, James Holsinger, Lisa Detweiler Miller, Lauren Reed, Kori Frazier, Jason Kapcala, James Greene, Aaron Percich, Rebecca Schwab and Joel, Kate Ridinger, Christina Rothenbeck, Layla Al-Bedawi, Jason Markins, Randi Smith and Brad Eddy.

Thank you, everyone, for your help and support with the sale. It shall return again next November!