Cathy McAllister after retirement had devoted her time to a non-profit organization. She loved reading books and the organization used to organize an event in which the books were sold at an affordable price to customers and the money accrued was used for charity purpose. Cathy had been given the responsibility of most of the tasks of the show. It was while sorting the books she comes across a worn out book. She opens it up to check it thoroughly. It was then she finds a hollow carved inside the book with a knife. The purpose behind this act would put you in disbelief.
There are many organizations all around the world that accepts book donations along with clothes. And Volunteer Nonprofit Service Association Inc happens to be one of them. The organization that is based in Pheonix, Arizona has hundreds of its volunteers looking after donations and receiving over 600,000 books in donations. Some people call VNSA “the largest charity used book sale in the Southwest.”
After the organization is done giving many books the institution forms a group of 130+ volunteers who sorts through the books and put a price on them. Thereafter, they get them ready for the big event that happens every February. Cathy McAllister is a former schoolteacher who helps in getting the books ready for February sale.
Cathy is very fond of books. She had freshly retired as a school teacher and was actively participating in the events organized by Volunteer Nonprofit Service Association Inc. Her favorite in all is the event concerned with the book. She participates in that on a regular basis.
The Facebook page of Used Book Sale’s read, “VNSA is unique among Valley charities in that it is an all-volunteer organization with no paid employees." “The 100+ members of VNSA work year round collecting donated books, sorting, pricing and boxing the books and preparing all the details for the annual Book Sale.”
So what kind of books do they look for? McAllister explains, "We always look for a book that we can sell,” “And so we don’t keep everything. Sometimes we get multiple copies of a book; sometimes it’s a book that doesn’t sell.”
Cathy shoulders many of the responsibilities of the event. Among many of her responsibilities, one is the coordination of the volunteers. She had to make sure that volunteers are doing their work efficiently.
The event is done with the aim of providing buyers with books on affordable price and sending the raised money to local charities, for example, Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation and Literacy Volunteers of Maricopa County. Cathy loved it and this time too she could not help but volunteer once again.
The woman does not get a single minute for herself when the arrangements for the show begins. She even stops going to her house and spends her days in the warehouse only. She has a deep affection for the show and does everything in her power to make it a big success.
Like usual, she was sifting through the pile of books when her hands get a grip of a book titled “The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire,” by Edward Gibbon. Not to mention, it was a worn out version of the book.
Except for the faded color of the cover, the book was in a readable state. Apart from this one, Cathy had gotten her hands on three of these books but all of them were in better condition as compared to this one. Clearly, the book was about to be subjected to repurpose. She included it in the “repurposing” pile.
She herself was a big bookworm and so knew the importance of a good book. But before putting it in the collection she decided to inspect it to confirm that the book was fine. She opened the book not expecting to see what was kept inside between the pages.
Cathy had not imagined that the book she was holding was not merely a book but also the guard of a secret. As soon as she opened the cover, she realized that there was a hollowed out part of the book that appears to be concealing something.
Apparently, someone had made the hole with the help of a knife. The hole was carved out on a specific space. The hole was carved to store something inside it.
McAllister remembered, "I was totally stunned." "Truly I was unable to find words. There were people in the category next to mine talking. I just took the open book and interrupted the conversation until I was able to say, "Look what I found!'" she added.
Cathy had no idea that the book she had in her hands was nothing ordinary. She explained to Bookstr, “I had the book in my hands.” She was all set to hurl the book inside the "repulping" pile. However, she could not.
She said, “I thought, ‘Well, it’s not in too bad shape. I’ll just check it.’ Sometimes our books are smoky, and so I fan them out to see if they smell – in which case we would discard them.” But was she wasting her time? She will soon find out.
She explained, “I was ready to toss it because we had several copies already…but when I fanned that book out, there’s a big hole carved out in the book amongst the pages…” And soon she figured that the thing hidden inside the hole resembled a lot like bills.
Money inside a hole? Well, it is highly unlikely so she took it as Monopoly money. Perhaps, a child had kept them inside the book. Most probably, this was some kind of tricks the kids were playing. She pulled the money out only to get the biggest surprise of her life.
It wasn't Monopoly money. It was a hoard of real money. Cathy actually had $100 dollar bills in her hand. It all seemed like a dream to her. Someone had hidden real money inside the book and then abandoned it. What was the purpose?
Cathy looked inside and found four packages. For some strange reasons the packages were banded in the same fashion as banks do when one withdraws the money. This was not the only surprising part, each of the four packages had ten $100 dollar bills.
Someone had actually hidden $4,000 inside the book titled “The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire.” But why a book? And who had done it? The discovery had given birth to a number of questions.
Each of the four packages had bills of $100 dollar. It took her a while to come out of her surprising state and when her senses returned to her, she wondered if the true owner wanted the money back.
Cathy further explained, “Wow. This is enough money to fund a supplemental charity.” However, she soon did away with that notion. She had no intention of keeping the money to herself as it was against her principles.
Her values were formidable. She continued, “My values were grounded in our faith.” But how was she going to find the owner? Well as they say "where is a will, there is always a way."
Not for once did she think of keeping the money to herself. She said, “The church taught us what was right and wrong. It just becomes who you are after a while.”
Cathy had to find out the owner. There was no way she was going to keep the money. Who knows, if the owner is still looking for the money. It must have been so painful for him/her to lose such a tremendous amount of cash.
The woman had her stars on her side. Maybe that's why she managed to find the owner of the money so easily. She did not even have to make any efforts. While sifting through the book, she came across a letter sent to spouse and children of the owner. And with that, the letter also had the name of its previous owner on it.
McAllister said, “When I looked inside the jacket of the book, the owner of the book – I hoped – had put a little address label.” “And he had a rather unusual last name. I started working on the internet, and within ten minutes I’d found the family.”
The letter was about this stashed bunch of money only. The letter was more of an instruction. The owner of the money had instructed his wife and children to distribute the money among them.
Moreover, the former owner had a quite different last name. So, finding the owner would not be a very difficult task. Like every other person, she took to social media to look for the person. Fortunately, she managed to track down the person. The owner was an old man.
Luckily for her and the family, the owner and his family were living close by. He said, “Many times, we assume that these are books from an estate,” “that the owner has probably died and his family has disposed of the book.” Well, that certainly wasn’t the case in this instance.
She contacted the owner by messaging him. She narrated the entire incident how she found the money inside the book and the letter that helped her know about the owner. After that, she waited for the person to reply. The woman wondered how was he going to react towards her revelation.
Surprisingly, the man had no idea about this money. He had forgotten it a long time ago. However, this is unconvincing that a person forgets such a tremendous amount.
As the owner had grown quite old he was incapable of meeting Cathy on his own. So, his son-in-law decided to meet the woman and made all the necessary arrangements to collect the money from the woman.
Cathy reminisced, "It was a little bit surprising because this gentleman came down with his adult daughter, and she said now you can slap him,' and I said, 'No, that's your job." The family was unique in itself.
The discovery was as much surprising for the family as it was to Cathy. They had never been informed about the book and the money hidden inside it. Initially, they felt as if someone was pulling a prank on them but when they saw the letter they knew it was their father.
McAllister further stated that after getting the news, the daughter of the owner asked the old man if he had stashed money in any other book. McAllister believes that the family would have gone through each and every book kept in the house to check if any of them had stashed money.
McAllister said, “I think [the donor’s] children were a bit stunned, and they asked him, ‘Did you do this in another book?’ I actually invited them to come down to our pre-sale before the public sees the books [in case] they wanted to identify any other books that he might’ve done [anything in].”
Cathy would have invited the family over her place but she herself was staying outside at the warehouse because of the approaching event. The woman was feeling good and contented after contacting the concerned family.
The family too could not thank her enough for her act of kindness. Very few people go the extra mile to help others. And the family showed their gratitude in the most amazing way. They donated a major part of the found money to the Volunteer Nonprofit Service Association. In no time this heart touching story became viral.
Cathy and her amazing story soon hit the headlines. She was all over the news channels and papers. The woman who had spent the majority of her life in quietness had now flooded with fame and admiration.
Whereas some posts were all about appreciation and admiration there were some that wanted to know more about her. One of them asked her why she did not keep the money to herself, to which Cathy replied, “I don’t know how you would sleep at night.”
The annual sale of VNSA book started on February 9, 2019. Volunteers were eager to find out the response of the customer once they would get to know about Cathy's story. Most probably, they would start searching for stashed money inside every book.
However, nothing happened as they had expected. Though each and every individual out there was overwhelmed by the altruistic act of the woman, none of them bothered to check books for stashed cash. Cathy explained, “I don’t think that anybody else will find $4000 in a book. But books are a great gift, with or without $4000.”
As far as the sale is concerned it turned out to be a huge success. Over 13,000 people gathered to become a part of the event in February 2019. It was because of these fantastic number they managed to collect $400,000. And as planned the whole of money was given away to charity.
Adrieanne Morey expressed her feelings, “Thanks to this sale, I got $100+ worth of kids’ books to stock my waiting room at my vision center.” “A wonderfully diverse group of books that will hopefully get kids and adults interacting while they wait for an eye exam. I love, love, love this sale every year!”
This amazing Volunteer Nonprofit Service Association came into existence about 63 years ago. The organization aims to raise enough funds to make donations to community programs. This mind-blowing initiative was taken by VNSA in 1949. Since then, the show has gathered many loyal customers who show up every year to buy books.
The organization said, “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 $5,300,000 to local nonprofit human service agencies in our community.”
These sales have not gone in vain. Since 1987, the charity made by the organization has helped big time to some local charities, Volunteers of Maricopa County and Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation.
What appeared to be a book worth throwing in trash turned out to be a carrier of a secret that would have gone unnoticed had Cathy not cared to open the book. Have you ever come across an incident as bizarre as this one?