With a lot of help from a couple of relatively new friends, the Friends of the Wareham Free Library raised more than $1,700 on Saturday.

Manny and Tiffany Castro have two young children who regularly enjoy the library's story hour. Inspired by their children's response to librarian Marcia Hickey's program and by resident Dick Wheeler's successful effort to raise funds for the library through kayaking, the Castros got to thinking what they might do to help the library.

The result was Saturday's wine tasting and raffle at the Stonebridge Bistro in Onset. Manny, who works for beverage distributor Horizon Beverages in Avon, put together a beer- and wine-tasting. Tiffany organized a raffle of items donated by local merchants.

The result, said Friends president Kathy Gleason, was more than $1,700 raised to support the local library.

The 70 tickets were sold out, and the raffle did "extremely well," Gleason said.

Smiling broadly at the conclusion of the event, the Castros took time to thank a group of their friends who helped with pouring everything from micro-brew beers to a chocolate red wine.

Manny said he was familiar with the mechanics of a wine-tasting from his work, but he admitted that he had "never set one up all by myself. . . All our friends were here helping!"

The library, with its town support cut as Wareham wrestles with tight finances, has been struggling to maintain state certification. The Friends of the Wareham Free Library raise money to support materials acquisition and programming aimed at helping the library meet state requirements.