First Relief Fund Grants Being Mailed, Phase One Deadline Saturday

The first wave of Phase One Bookseller Relief Fund (BRF) grants will be mailed to 35 booksellers in the hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast by the end of this week. The grants of $500 each are meant to provide assistance for temporary housing, food, clothing, transportation, medical expenses, and/or other personal items lost or damaged during the storms.

The deadline for applications for Phase One relief is this Saturday, October 15. Any bookseller in a federally declared disaster area, who is no longer being paid by the bookstore at which they worked at least 25 hours or more a week at the time of Hurricane Katrina, is eligible to apply for a Phase One grant. To apply, booksellers must provide their name; their current address, phone number, and e-mail address; and the name and address of the store where they worked, as well as the name of the store's owner or their immediate supervisor. In addition, booksellers applying for funds must submit a statement affirming that they are no longer being paid by the store where they worked. (Applications may be submitted electronically at www.bookweb.org/read/8126; or a form may be downloaded in PDF format and mailed or faxed to the fund.)

More expansive requests for assistance from the owners of bookstores within the federally declared disaster area will be considered by a subcommittee of the Bookseller Relief Fund Board under Phase Two of the Relief Fund effort. Booksellers interested in filing a more detailed request for assistance under Phase Two should contact ABA Director of Special Projects David Walker at davidw@bookweb.org or at (800) 637-0037, ext. 6612.

All necessary documentation for fund relief should be sent to the attention of Walker [by mail to Bookseller Relief Fund, c/o ABA, 200 White Plains Rd., Tarrytown, NY 10591; by fax to (914) 591-2720; or by e-mail to davidw@bookweb.org].

To learn more about the BRF, which was created by the American Booksellers Association to provide humanitarian aid to booksellers in need, go to www.bookweb.org/read/8092.