Restore Books Santo Niño: Aid Rich Dugan

Urgent Appeal!

As fellow book lovers, you can maybe understand the shock & pain of my friend, Rich Dugan who lost his 3000 square foot warehouse full of books to fire Wednesday morning.

Please help if you are able, to restore the organization to donating books in and around the greater Downtown El Paso area.

For the love of literacy for all ~

Rich Dugan befriended books at an early age. As a military brat, he moved frequently. He couldn’t count on friends from one year to the next, but every base had an adequate library. No matter the country, whether it be Turkey, England, the Philippines, Hawai’i, or the wilds of Mississippi, he found his way to the local public libraries and booksellers. All the librarians and book traders would learn his name, as well as his likes.

With every move, Rich had to discard many of his possessions – including all but his few most treasured books. This taught him the now finely honed skill of antiquarian book valuation when he’d sell books that he’d bought, rather than toss them.

He used this skill to buy and sell books from estate sales around El Paso, his home of 40+ years. Over his lifetime, he gained a reputation for helping evaluate book collections as well as identify rare or collectible books for fellow bibliophiles, libraries, collectors, auctioneers, antique and estate dealers.

After an estate sale, Rich would often purchase all the remaining books. He’d take the ones he could sell individually to his home office while the bulk would go to a warehouse in downtown El Paso that he’d purchased for this very reason.

From this eclectic 2-story building on East Overland Street, Rich Dugan established the 501C3 nonprofit organization, Books Santo Niño, that has given hundreds of thousands of books away over its 18-year history.

Organizations such as the Visually Impaired Persons of El Paso and the UTEP Sociology Club use donations from Books Santo Niño for their annual book sales. The El Paso Historical Society receives many antique books for their fundraising auctions as well as significant local historical volumes for their permanent library collection.

Mr. Dugan also has an eye for art. He collects many local artists as well as generally watching at the auctions and estate sales. What was too large for his home adorned the stained glass-splashed walls of his Overland warehouse, too.

Pre-pandemic, Books Santo Niño hosted an annual Fourth of July Free Book y Raspa giveaway outside the Jalisco Cafe. Mainly the books in both English and Spanish were for kids, but there were plenty of titles available for grown-ups to take as well. People came from all over Segundo Barrio every year. The newspapers and TV stations covered this selfless, philanthropic, positive community event.

At Halloween, rather than candy, trick-or-treaters are treated to as many books as they can carry. An average of 300 books are given away each All Hallow’s Eve.

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, September 3rd, Rich Dugan was awakened by a call from the El Paso Fire Department telling him his building was engulfed in flames.

In what was presumably an arson to cover up a robbery, the entire building was a total loss. Thankfully, there were no injuries and no collateral damage to neighbors nor their property.

There will be reimbursement required to the city for the demolition and removal of debris. The insurance company would not cover the contents without titles of each one of the thousands upon thousands of books and is fighting the coverage of the building itself.

Since the onset of the pandemic, Rich and several members of the Books Santo Niño board have suffered significant health issues with accompanying financial burdens precluding them from personally covering the loss.

We are seeking donations to cover the costs of the fire cleanup, currently estimated at $17,864.