Along with the commercial exposure it brought to the area wine and craft brewery industries, the Budbreak event is paying off for local non-profit and charitable organizations to the tune of $20,000.
That’s the figure tapped for distribution among various entities due to the eighth-annual Budbreak Wine and Craft Beer Festival on May 6. It continued a tradition of celebrating a new growing season in the Yadkin Valley with wine, beer, food and live music.
Along with the good times surrounding an event allowing attendees to sample wares of wineries and breweries from near and far, Budbreak addresses real-world needs of the community and the mission of its sponsor, the Mount Airy Rotary Club.
“All non-profits rely on charitable donations,” said Bob Meinecke, a Rotary Club member who serves as coordinator of Budbreak. This is coupled with the importance the club assigns to supporting community-betterment organizations and service projects locally and worldwide.
“And that was our whole purpose in creating the festival,” Meinecke added Wednesday regarding the origins of Budbreak. “Before that, we did golf tournaments and draw-downs like everybody else.”
The Budbreak Wine and Craft Beer Festival has become the primary external fund-raising event for the Mount Airy Rotary Club, with its success allowing the club to support a variety of worthwhile causes.
In just the past three years, it has given a total of $65,000 to 10 non-profit organizations and projects.
These include the Surry Arts Council, Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, The Salvation Army, the United Fund of Surry, Surry Medical Ministries, Friends of the Mount Airy Police Department, the Shepherd’s House, Yokefellow Food Pantry, Stop Hunger Now and Boy Scouts of America.
In addition, Budbreak has aided the eradication of polio in the world through the Paul Harris Foundation of the Rotary Club; the RUSH (Rotarians United to Stop Hunger) campaign, which has included four events to collect food and money; literacy efforts in local elementary schools; a Fourth of July fireworks celebration, food drive and veterans support effort;
Also, mother and child water, sanitation and health-care initiatives and programs in Uganda; the sponsorship of Interact Clubs in local high schools and their many projects; a shelter box effort for storm or earthquake victims; and the CART (Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust) program.
“Through the success of the fund-raiser we have been able to provide extraordinary service to our community and the world,” says a club statement summing up the role Budbreak has played. “We look forward to continued success and being able to support these and other projects in the years to come.”
Event overcomes weather
Meinecke said organizers were concerned about the success of Budbreak on May 6, when cool temperatures prevailed along with a threat of rain, yet a great turnout still resulted.
“It was surprising, because we thought it was going to be lower — but then, people kept coming all day.”
About 2,800 attended the latest Budbreak festival, said Meinecke, which proved to be one of the biggest in its eight-year history. “It matched the best we’ve had.” Seventeen different wineries and four breweries were represented.
Rotary Club members volunteer to assist with various tasks on the day of the event, which Meinecke said boosts the local economy along with charity.
The hotels were “packed,” he said, in addition to local eateries doing a brisk business from the Budbreak traffic.
