Beer lovers have helped give organizations a hand up through United Way in Okotoks.
Hub Town Brewing provided a portion of its sales from the 1882 Golden Ale in October to the Okotoks United Way with a total of $615.30 coming out of beer sales.
In addition, the brewery hosted a jail-and-bail event on Oct. 3, with United Way locking up Mayor Bill Robertson and Logan Coutts of The Eagle 100.9 to raise funds in lieu of its annual Roof Rescue event, typically held at Sobeys, which was unable to run this year.
The total raised between both events was $6,798.95.
“It was fun,” said Robertson of being locked up with Coutts for the day. “It’s easy to support a good cause like United Way. So many agencies benefit from this.”
In fact, between 12 to 15 agencies benefit from funds raised in Okotoks, said United Way chair Shawna Lawson.
“Every penny stays in Okotoks, so it’s not like it’s going to a big corporate machine,” she said. “It’s kind of grassroots volunteers, helping out people in our own community.”
She said the idea of moving the rescue event to the brewery’s iconic pick-up truck on its patio came this summer while she was manning a United Way booth at the Elks Farmers' Market across the street.
After the market, she and her husband ventured over to check out Hub Town and have a pint. They spoke with co-owner Lisa Watts and came up with the idea of using the truck bed as a jail.
“Mayor Robertson said he’d do it, and Logan Coutts, and it turned out to be a great day with great weather, and we raised almost $7,000 in all,” said Lawson.
She said the fundraising goal of the organization is $10,000, so the donations at Hub Town have been a huge boost in a difficult financial year.
Now the goal is to raise more awareness about United Way, said Lawson, who became chair in mid-November.
“Part of my mandate is to really raise some awareness about what United Way actually does,” she said.
She has been involved with the organization for four years in Okotoks, but was previously involved in Ontario as well, where she said more people know about United Way and most even give donations directly from their paycheques.
It’s a program that could be implemented by any companies who chose to offer the opportunity to their employees in Okotoks as well, she said, adding it doesn’t have to be a lot and every dime helps when it all adds up.
Donations to United Way are distributed to many other groups in the community, she said.
“You’re supporting everything from Big Brothers Big Sisters to Rowan House to Cameron Crossing School and many other charities that, especially right now, are struggling,” said Lawson.
