Serving Beer for Charity at Ashley for the Arts

I spent a day this August working the beer tent at Ashley for the Arts in Arcadia, Wisconsin, and it was great. Not because of the music or the crowds — because of what the whole thing is for.

Ashley for the Arts is a three-day music and arts festival put on by Ashley Furniture Industries. A town of about 3,000 people swells to tens of thousands for the weekend, and the lineup was stacked this year — Daughtry, ZZ Top, and Brad Paisley on Friday; Third Eye Blind and Darius Rucker on Saturday.

I wasn't in the crowd for any of it. I was behind a folding table, pouring beer.

The beer tent is the unglamorous job. Standing for hours, making change, keeping the line moving. It's not complicated work, and it's exactly the kind of work that keeps a festival like this running.

And it matters more than it looks. This year the event raised over $715,000 for nearly 70 local nonprofits — schools, children's charities, medical research. The volunteers work shifts, and the groups they represent earn support based on those shifts. So pouring beer is, literally, the donation.

Showing up matters. Not everything has to be a side project or a growth story. Sometimes the work is just showing up, doing the unglamorous job, and going home knowing the event raised a little more because you were there.

The field-notes version is on WanderingCTO.

Think this argument fits your event? Tell me about the room — the calendar is selective.