Chapters for charity: WSU Downtown hosts Scholastic Book Fair

February 2, 2023

WSU student Rowan Ellis, her brother and their mother checking out books.

Weber State Downtown on Washington Boulevard is hosting a Scholastic Book Fair until Feb. 4, with proceeds from the event going to a local charity called Nurture the Creative Mind.

The idea to host a book fair at the downtown bookstore came from a similar event at the on-campus bookstore.

“Campus had a book fair in the store up on campus, and we started talking amongst all of our employees down here and thought it would be fun to try and bring something like that to our store,” Tyler Cahoon, manager of the WSU Downtown bookstore, said.

Their event differed, however, in content. The downtown location tried to keep the demographic of their “foot traffic,” which is mostly Weber students and families, in mind when stocking for the event. Cahoon said product appeal ranges from “preschool all the way up to 12th grade.”

To promote the event, the store hosted a free party on Jan. 28 where patrons were welcome to come in for free treats and a picture with Waldo while they checked out what the fair had to offer.

“They are a non-profit here in Ogden that works with youth, kind of like an after-school type program, where they teach them skills like writing and podcasting and photography and videography and all sorts of things they can use in their daily lives,” Cahoon said.

Cahoon encouraged students to come and browse the downtown location, even after the fair has ended. The store offers a cafe, Weber State University merch and two gaming consoles to play in-store. It is located near some of Ogden’s favorite small businesses.

“If you haven’t checked out the downtown location, you should always come down here,” Cahoon said. “We have lots of fun things going on. We love to have people just come down and check it out.”

Overall, the event has been a success for the Wildcat Store so far.

“It’s been fun,” Cahoon said. “Our goal down here is just to bring the community together, it’s kind of what the purpose of this building is, it’s kind of a bridge between campus and downtown, so we try to have as many community-oriented events down here as we can.”