It's A Wrap!
Our 35th Anniversary Year has come to a close, and wow, what a year it’s been!
We had a remarkable 12 months since we were here last year, kicking off our 35th Anniversary in May, 2025. We met amazing people and accomplished some fantastic goals. Here are some of the highlights of the most important accomplishments of our committees and working groups.
Check out a short video of some of the events, programs, and activities we do to support the Edgewater Branch Library, Chicago Public Library, and the Edgewater community.
A heartfelt thanks and congratulations to all the committee co-chairs and their teams, and all the Friends members who contributed their time, funding, or talent for an outstanding 35th Anniversary Year.
Membership
In the 6 months of Friendraising from March 1- August 31, 2025, we surpassed our previous year at August 31 with a membership increase of 17.9%, taking our membership from 119 to 145, including 53 new members, 11 returning former members; unfortunately, 49 members did not renew.
We also learned that our best avenue for Friendraising is our Friendraising tables in June, which we run for two hours each Saturday during the month.
Getting ready for Book Sale weekend!
Book Sale
On the weekend of October 4 & 5, 2025, we had the single largest fundraising book sale in the 35 years of Friends, breaking the $7,000 mark and raising a total of almost $7,100.
There were about 6,500 books donated to the sale, approximately 2,500 more than in 2024.
There were 3,200 leftover books returned to the community through various organizations with which we partner. We also kept a selection of books for membership giveaways, free books for patrons of the Edgewater library, and special giveaways related to programs we host.
The 2026 Book Sale is scheduled for the first weekend in October, 3 & 4, with setup on Oct 2 and breakdown on Oct 5. Committee meetings will start in the coming weeks to prepare for the 2026 sale.
Programs
Programs had an outstanding year, producing more than 44 programs, including Friends-initiated programs, collaborations with Edgewater Library staff and CPL, and those with other community organizations, many of which we fund or co-fund.
The most outstanding programs in attendance this past year were:
The Dances and Stories of India was produced for Friends and the Library by Bollywood Grove Productions. An estimated 75+ people attended and participated in the program from tiny tots, who could barely walk, to seniors well past their dancing prime!
Pam Toler, who spoke on Sigrid Schultz, the Dragon from Chicago, had 53+ in attendance.
Two children’s music events, which we funded for the Children’s Librarians, Little Miss Ann (single program) with over 45 parents and children in attendance (October), and Miss Ruby, an ongoing series of music and dance programs for tots and toddlers – sessions have seen 60-65 parents & children in attendance.
Communications
Communications has some of the toughest work because they plug into everything else Friends does to make sure people know what we’re up to, what's going on with the branch and CPL in general, and with our community partners and others we’re connected to. Their one big thing this year has been the explosion of our Social Media feeds and the new social media sub-committee with chair Lori Feldman, along with team members Ricardo Pierre-Louis and Regina Wise. Here are some of the social media highlights,
In the last 60 days, our FB page had 10,500+ views - a 70% increase (this represents the number of times our content was played or displayed. Content includes reels, posts, stories)
In the last 60 days, we had 640 engagements - 63.1+.% higher than the previous 60 days. (Engagement is the number of reactions, clicks, comments, shares, and saves on your posts. Views/impressions are great, but the engagement metric is more significant.)
Friends member, Michele Stauff, did a selfie-video talking about Giving Tuesday, which garnered 1.5+K views on Facebook.
Runners Up – Victoria Granacki’s video about her book An Artist Goes to War got 1.1+K, and Duke Ellington the dog, who belongs to Friends member Tom Welch, got 980+ views for kicking off National Library Week.
Naturally, we love having folks in Chicago and the US viewing our posts, but we are a hit around the world – places like Cameroon, India, Chile, Belgium, Brazil, & South Africa. Lori has a theory: Friends is a globally beloved organization, and we have fans across the world. BTW – we already have plans to go and meet some of our Friends in France, Belgium, etc. – just kidding!!
BTW, this is the second time we’ve learned that people around the world follow us – during the pandemic, people tuned into our programs from across the world. About 10% of our mailing list are people from countries other than the US.
Community Engagement
In our work across the community, we are always partnering with other non-profits and organizations. This past year, Wintrust became our first corporate sponsor, funding both the Ben Franklin program and Little Miss Ann in October. The local Target donated a $500 gift card, which we’ve used to fund several items for the library and Friends.
The Befriend-A-Book program was initiated as part of our 35th Anniversary celebration to engage the community in making sure that the Edgewater Branch’s collection remains fresh and current. BAB complements the generous gift Friends gave to get the ball rolling on upgrading the collection. To date, the program has raised almost $3,800 from the Edgewater community.
Some of the beach cleanup volunteers!
We also recently partnered with the Alliance for the Great Lakes through our member, Regina Wise, to co-host a series of beach cleanups, with our first one held on May 17. Get ready to jump in and help us keep Edgewater’s beaches clean all summer long. Follow our Facebook page for future dates, locations, and updates. Check out CPL’s website, or books and other information about the Great Lakes.
Image courtesy Chicago Public Library
The Biggest Success – the one we didn’t plan for
Finally, one of Friends’ biggest successes of the year was one we didn’t plan for and had only a few days to pull off: our advocacy initiative, in collaboration with the Library Workers Union and a host of other groups and individuals, including many City Council members and coverage by local and national media outlets, on behalf of the Chicago Public Library system.
This initiative stirred up community support by residents across the city and kept the City of Chicago from taking more than $10M dollars from CPL’s Annual Collections Budget. It saved 89 positions across the CPL system with the allocation of an additional $9M provided by a dedicated tax levy within the city’s overall budget. Thanks to everyone who took the time to use their voice on behalf of the Chicago Public Library.
Betty A. Barclay. Image courtesy of Edgewater Historical Society & Edgewater Glen Association
There’s so much that we didn’t cover – but none of it would have been possible without our membership, our board, library patrons, program attendees, the Edgewater Branch Library staff, Chicago Public Library, and the collaborative efforts with many groups and individuals that go on throughout the neighborhood and the city. Last, but not least, a final tribute to Betty Barclay, who started this ball rolling 36 years ago. Betty, we hope you like what we’ve done!
P. S. If you want to see more of what we did in our 35th Anniversary Year, just scroll through our Facebook page.
— From remarks by Friends President, Joanna Broussard,
at the Annual Meeting, May 16.