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03/07/2018 07:30 AMWater is the most popular drink in the world; tea comes next, but what then? Coffee? Carbonated soda? Milk?
None of the above. It’s beer and at Cheers for Charity, the Essex Community Foundation (ECF) inaugural Beer Fest on Saturday, March 10 at the Essex Steam Train, people can sample different locally brewed beers with the clearest of consciences. Every sip will help support civic organizations.
Adrienne Kiel, a member of the board of ECF who is doing publicity for the event, spent a recent weekend going to brew pubs from as far away as Willimantic, Groton, and Branford advertising the event. At every stop, she had her picture taken with the flyer promoting the upcoming Beer Fest and posted them all on her Facebook page.
ECF provides grants for some 30 local organizations among them Bikes for Kids, Camp Hazen YMCA, The Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries, Essex Fuel Assistance Program, Tri-Town Youth Services, and the VNA of the Lower Valley.
Cheers for Charity, Adrienne emphasizes, is a beer fest, but not a keg party or a fraternity blowout.
“We’re not marketing to a crowd that’s going to get inebriated,” she says.
While there is no limit to the number of drinks patrons can have, the beer will be served in small two-ounce glasses.
And there’s a chance not only to drink beer, but to learn about it. VIP admission includes a tasting and information session with Alex Foulkes, owner of the Penny Lane Pub in Old Saybrook. Foulkes is a beer expert, certified as a cicerone by the Craft Beer Institute.
“A cicerone is like a sommelier for wine, but for beer instead,” Adrienne explains.
VIP ticket holders will also get hors d’oeuvres and a Cheers for Charity T-shirt. Attendees can buy more substantial food: steamed cheeseburgers from Ted’s Restaurant and baked goods from the Drunken Baker. (The business name describes an important ingredient.)
VIP admission begins at noon; general admission at 1 p.m. The festival closes at 4 p.m. Breweries participating include Stony Creek Brewery, Steady Habit Brewing Company, Doc’s Hill Brewing, and 30 Mile Brewing Company, as well as some choices beyond beer from Yankee Cider Company and Angelini Wines.
Adrienne, who has lived in Centerbrook for some four years, may be a familiar face to shoppers at the Ivoryton Farmer’s Market. She and her husband Mike have a stand, Shashok Farms, with vegetables from their one-acre farm, on most weekends.
“The most popular things are tomatoes, cukes, kale, and we have basil to die for,” she says.
Her husband Mike, with a master’s degree in horticulture, does most of the farming. Adrienne, who grew up in Wallingford, and describes herself as a “city girl,” delivers the vegetable boxes once a week to people who have signed up through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).
“I have time in the summer because I’m a teacher,” she explains.
Adrienne is the sole art teacher at E.C. Goodwin Technical High School in New Britain, where she has worked for more than a decade. She was selected as teacher of the year at E.C. Goodwin in 2015 and in the same year was named the state’s outstanding art educator by the Connecticut Art Education Association.
She has a ready explanation for people who assume technical high school students don’t measure up to the level of other high schoolers.
“Kids in technical school are different learners,” she says, “but on Christmas Day, when your toilet doesn’t work and you are having 75 people over, you are going to call one of my students, and guess what, that student is going to charge you,” she says, noting the cost will likely not be insignificant.
She points out that the trades that are taught at technical high school have another advantage: They cannot be outsourced to other countries.
“If you need your car fixed, or your air conditioning fixed, you need someone there,” she says.
In addition to her teaching, Adrienne remains actively involved with the wider community.
“I love event planning, and I love volunteering,” she says.
She is co-president of the Sunshine Club at E.C. Goodwin, a group that Adrienne says “spreads good cheer to co-workers in need and plans special events.” She is also a member of the Westbrook Elks and Meriden’s Polish Legion of the American Veterans. In addition, she is the bus chairperson for the Meriden Ski Club.
She snowboards since she tore her ACL playing field hockey in high school. Before that she skied, but when she was doing rehabilitation work after the ACL injury, she noticed that all the people she was exercising with had torn the ligament skiing.
“That’s when I switched to snowboarding,” she says.
These days, she also does Zumba at the Valley Shore YMCA.
“I like action, excitement,” Adrienne says. “I like to put things on the calendar and look forward to them.”
At the moment, what she is looking forward to is a successful debut for ECF’s first Cheers for Charity.
On March 10, at 4 p.m., “I want to feel like we’ve won the Super Bowl,” she says.
Excited though she may be, there is one very basic thing Adrienne cannot do at the event: drink beer. She has a medical condition that make that impossible. Still, the afternoon won’t be a total loss. She can drink wine and cider.
Adrienne advises people who want to attend to purchase tickets online in advance through the ECF website, www.essexcommunityfund.org. Purchasers must be 21 and bring proof of age as well as the ticket to the event; tickets are not transferable or refundable.
“The capacity is 200 and we think we’re going to sell out. People might think there will be lots of tickets at the door, but it looks like they could be gone by then,” she says.
Cheers for Charity
The inaugural Essex Community Fund Cheers for Charity Beer Fest is on Saturday, March 10, at the Essex Steam Train. VIP ticket holders are admitted at noon; regular admission enters at 1 p.m. The event closes at 4 p.m. For tickets, visit the Essex Community Fund website www.essexcommunityfund.org.