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Donations Pour In For Frontline Healthcare Workers At Eugene Brewery

Melorie Begay/KLCC News

More than 120 crowlers, hand filled cans of beer, have made their way to doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers after a Eugene brewery added the option to donate online.

 

Co-founder ofGratitude Brewing Tristan Cooley says it all started when a generous customer ordered several crowlers. They then requested for the beer to be sent to healthcare workers.

 

“He knew that my wife is an E.R. doctor and wanted to basically show his gratitude for their position,” Cooley says. Fellow co-founder Josh Cosci’s wife is also a nurse. 

Credit Melorie Begay/KLCC News
Co-founder Tristan Cooley fills a crowler with beer inside Gratitude Brewing in Eugene.

Cooley says more customers joined in with donations of their own. They added a donate button to their Square site. Now, he says about 10% of their sales come from folks buying 32 ounces of beer for frontline workers. 

Gratitude Brewing has kicked in a few beers as well, he says. “We don’t have an option to make big donations ourselves, since we’re a small business and we just got started, so the fact that our customers wanted to do that, makes us feel really good,” he said.

They’ll keep donations open for frontline workers as long as there’s interest, Cooley says. This week, they plan to distribute beer to White Bird CAHOOTS and local firefighters. 

 

Gratitude Brewing has been closed for nearly two months to adhere to Governor Kate Brown's order to close on March 23. With Lane County given the green light to reopen, co-founder Josh Cosci says they expect to open by the end of May.

 

©? 2020 KLCC

Melorie Begay is a multimedia journalist for KLCC News. She was the Inaugural KLCC Public Radio Foundation Journalism Fellow. She has a bachelors in Multimedia Journalism from the University of New Mexico. She previously interned at KUNM public radio in Albuquerque, NM and served as a fellow for the online news publication New Mexico In Depth.