By Dick Mason

Observer Staff Writer

Helping the American Association of University Women prepare for its annual book sale has been a rewarding experience for a team of Eastern Oregon University business students.

On the flip side, their volunteer work has tested the patience of drivers throughout Union County.

The students, members of Eastern's Students In Free Enterprise team, picked up many of the more than 5,000 books donated for this week's sale at EOU.

The students collected the books donated at five drop sites at businesses in Union, Elgin, Cove and La Grande.

A simple task?

Far from it.

At least 2,500 books were donated, so many that several vehicles and many trips were needed to haul the books to a storage site at Eastern.

The students' vehicles were so jammed with volumes they sagged under the weight, said Jeff Mallory, the president of EOU's SIFE chapter.

The rims of the tires of Mallory's Toyota Camry almost touched the road because of the weight, he said. So, Mallory and his teammates drove slowly.

"The books really weighed us down. I had to be very careful going over speed bumps,'' Mallory said.

One could not have read Leo Tolstoy's epic novel "War And Peace'' in the time it sometimes took the students to haul the books to EOU. But one could have devoured several short stories

"Some of the people behind us got annoyed because we were driving so slowly,'' Mallory said.

The SIFE team helped market the AAUW sale by producing and distributing advertising flyers, appearing on a radio program and submitting a newspaper ad.

Helping put on the AAUW Book Sale is only one of many things EOU's SIFE team has done in Union County this school year. The students have given presentations in elementary schools on how grocery stores are run and talked at La Grande High School about international business.

The students put on investment workshops, which were open to the public. Several

La Grande financial advisers gave presentations at the workshops.

The SIFE team's efforts have been noticed. On April 13 the team was recognized at a regional SIFE meeting in Seattle, receiving first runner-up in chapter of the year competition. The region includes Oregon, northern California, Idaho, Montana and Washington.

EOU business professor Ted Atkinson is the team's advisor.

"This group of students has done much more than many SIFE teams in the past,'' Atkinson said. "They have done a fantastic job.''

This year's AAUW book sale runs through Saturday in Quinn Coliseum's small gym. The sale runs tonight through 8 and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.