The International Book Fair in Bogotá, Colombia was held April 25 to May 8, 2017 with a booth hosted by Urantia Association of Bogotá and with financial support from Urantia Association International. More than 40 volunteers participated in the booth. Guest volunteers from some Latin American countries were invited to come and volunteer to learn from this highly experienced group on how to host a successful book fair booth. Volunteers from Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Colombia answered the invitation and gained valuable hands-on experience.
Over 500,000 visitors attended the book fair, 23,000 flyers introducing The Urantia Book were handed out to visitors coming through the booth, 85 email addresses were collected, and 60 soft-cover books provided by Urantia Foundation were sold. The Bogotá team also made contact with 33 schools where they will be donating books to their libraries and holding conferences for students and teachers.
This book fair experience inspired many volunteers in the following ways:
- As a result of his experience at the International Book Fair in Bogotá, Efrain Vivanco from Ecuador will be hosting a booth at a book fair in Ecuador, May 29 to June 2. Two volunteers from Colombia will be there to help.
- The President of the new Urantia Association in Costa Rica returned home from this book fair experience and mobilized his team; he intends to host a booth at a book fair in Costa Rica in June.
- The two volunteers who attended from Cali, Colombia are making plans to host a booth at their local book fair in October.
- As a follow-up to this event the Bogotá Association will host an online talk on May 20, 2017 titled “Introduction to The Urantia Book” and will be broadcasted via Zoom in Latin America.
In addition Urantia booths will be present at book fairs in Bolivia, May to June, Guatemala in June, and Peru in July.
Book fairs provide a unique opportunity for volunteers to promote the revelation to the reading public while at the same time providing opportunities to meet with fellow students and volunteers creating strong bonds and friendship among the family of Urantia Associations around the world.