Flower sales. Craft fairs. Fashion shows. Purse parties. Jewelry sales. Collage exhibits? Charity vinyl sales?

While University students and their moms are preparing for the traditional fare of Mom’s Weekend events, there are also a number of options available to students and their parents interested in getting off campus.

The Independent Media Center at Lincoln Square Mall will feature the annual Pennies for Pages book sale hosted by U-C Books to Prisoners, a volunteer organization in Champaign-Urbana.

The book sale offers a large selection of books donated by members of the community to the cause via collection boxes in places around town like Strawberry Fields or the Independent Media Center.

The proceeds from the book sale go toward the shipping costs for the books to the inmates.

“We accept letters from inmates requesting books and we respond to the letters with three to five books,” said Jay Schubert, volunteer coordinator for the event.

“We (have shipped) roughly 100 packages a month in the past three years,” Schubert said. “We’ve been able to provide about 11,000 books to 1,873 inmates during that time.

“The book sale addresses the poor selection of books in prisons and encourages literacy. It lets the inmates know they’re not forgotten.”

Two remote art exhibits are being featured locally. At Champaign tapas bar Radio Maria, 119 North Walnut St., a few members of local group Artists Against AIDS will be displaying their work and have agreed to donate a minimum of 50 percent of the proceeds to the Greater Community AIDS Project.

Pages For All Ages Books, Music, Caf‚ & DVDs at 201 Savoy Plaza in Savoy, will be displaying work from Hua Nian, artist and art instructor in the Champaign-Urbana community. The artworks are assembled collages made from torn paper featuring the ideas of motherhood and children.

Next door to the Independent Media Center, WEFT-FM will be putting together its annual Vintage Vinyl Record Sale. The records, DVDs, CDs, cassettes and videos are collected by WEFT from donation sites allover east central Illinois.

“It’s a blowout of vinyl music collected over 25 years,” said R&B; DJ Donald “Master D” Emercer.

Proceeds will go toward the renovation of WEFT-FM’s front studio and the addition of personal boxes in the studio for the DJs.

“We definitely need University input and student input; they’re one of the biggest resources and the community is the biggest reason why we do it,” he said.

Pennies for Pages book sale

Independent Media Center, 202 S. Broadway Ave., Urbana

• Thursday, April 12 – 4-9 p.m.
• Friday, April 13 – 12-9 p.m.
• Saturday, April 14 – 10-5 p.m.
• Sunday, April 15 – 10-5 p.m.
• Monday, April 16 – 10-12 p.m.

All books half price on Monday. Visit http://www.books2prisoners.org for more information.

Vintage Vinyl Record Sale

WEFT-FM, Indendent Media Center

• Saturday, April 14 – 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Art exhibits

• Artists Against AIDS exhibit, Radio Maria, 119 North Walnut St., Champaign
• Hua Nian exhibit, Pages For All Ages, 201 Savoy Plaza, Savoy