Friends of the Laredo Library outline membership drive, fundraising and May Comic Con literacy event

Members of the newly formed Friends of the Laredo Library introduced themselves to the Laredo Public Library Advisory Committee on Feb. 25 and described plans to raise funds, recruit volunteers and support library programming.

Sabrina Spada, introduced as president of the Friends, said the group will ‘‘raise money for the library to promote the things that the library would like to do that maybe is not in their funding.’’ Officer Oscar Gomez identified himself as secretary; Michelle Harvey Ferretto said she is vice president and Marissa Shaw is the treasurer (not present at the meeting). The group reported ‘‘over 50 members’’ to date and said it established a $20 annual individual membership.

Friends officers credited a recent book sale — where they accepted credit cards for the first time — as a major success and described community outreach at festivals and a children's book festival that produced strong turnout. Michelle Harvey Ferretto said the Friends helped recruit vendors and authors and made connections with local supporters.

The group announced a Comic Con literacy event set for May 9 that will feature artists, authors, vendors and a cosplay contest. Officers said the goal is to present comic books as literature and to reach readers who might not otherwise participate in library programs. They also described membership perks such as early access to book-sale previews.

The Friends said they primarily use social media to communicate and encouraged the committee to follow their pages; they provided an organizational email during the presentation (reported in the transcript). The group also described a web payment platform called Zephy for processing card payments as part of membership sign-up.

The committee thanked the Friends for their presentation and offered follow-up assistance with promotion and member recruitment.

The Friends' presentation closed with invitations to upcoming events and an offer to provide printed copies of the slide materials to committee members.