Over two decades ago Erick van Schoonhoven, now in his 90s, raised more than $250,000 towards the building of the new Nunawading Church. This outstanding effort was accomplished by selling used newspapers that members brought in; collecting, restoring and selling furniture; collecting, sorting and selling coins, artwork, jewellery, LP records, CDs and artefacts etc. But the greatest money-spinner was his now famous book sales.
Every few months the church hall was used to display and sell thousands of books that came from church members, deceased estates, excess stock from school libraries and so on. This involved countless hours of travelling all over Melbourne and country Victoria to collect his “stock”, sort it all and price the items before each sale.
In a simple ceremony on Sabbath morning, July 2 the Nunawading Church affirmed and honoured Erick by naming the church library, “The Erick van Schoonhoven Library” and attaching a plaque in honour of his work. Erick was very quick to say that it could not have been done without the help of the numerous church members who assisted in sorting, pricing, packing, unpacking and moving boxes of books. Yes, there was a lot of help but it would not have happened without Erick’s indefatigable drive.
Pr Tony Campbell
Nunawading Church