A fundraiser continued its prominence at the library this semester.

The Friends of Sims Library hosted the 11th annual “Wine with Friends” on Friday, Nov. 8 starting at 6:30 p.m. in Sims Memorial Library.

Library Director Eric Johnson explained how the event began 11 years ago.

“We started a true Friends of the Library group where people join and we do fundraising to support the library,” said Johnson. “In the first year, we created an executive board, and we started brainstorming what events we could do to raise money for the library, and wine tasting came up. We had about 40 people the first year.”

The evening consisted of six wine and food pairings, a silent auction and live music. This year, almost 90 people attended the event.

The silent auction served as another fundraiser during the event. 

Johnson described what kind of items are usually up for auction.

“We usually have around 25 items for sale,” said Johnson. “They can range from gift certificates for local restaurants to themed gift baskets. We usually have some big items too, like a personal wine tasting, and this year we have an NCIS New Orleans package with a tour of the studio, some autographed pictures and a script.”

Janie Branham, assistant professor of communication and media studies, explained how she knew the event would continue to be a success after the first wine tasting.

“We knew that the wine tasting was successful the first year when I was letting people out the front doors and time after time people were saying, ‘Let’s do this again next week,’” recalled Branham. 

The library will be hosting a two-day book sale later this month, which will also serve as a fundraiser.