Left Hand Valley Courier - All Local, All The Time

Let them drink water. Beer production was paused by Oskar Blues Brewery so that the brewery’s manufacturing equipment could be used to package much needed clean drinking water for delivery to Texas and Florida hurricane victims.

This generous response to two back to back crises is the result of the joint efforts of Oskar Blues, Ball Corporation, and the CAN’d Aid Foundation.

CAN’d Aid, a not for profit organization started in 2013 by Dale Katechis, owner of Oskar Blues Brewery, originated when Colorado experienced severe flooding. Basic needs, including accessible drinking water, were hard to come by. Since its inception, over 700,000 cans of water have been donated by CAN’d Aid Foundation to communities in need of potable water.

Last week, 20 hours of production time resulted in 220,000 cans headed to Texas. This week, Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc on Florida and three truckloads of water are headed down to hydrate her victims. In anticipation of the need, Oskar Blues again stopped beer production to fill over 150,000 cans donated by Ball Corporation with water to be trucked to Florida for arrival on Wednesday, Sept. 13.

Over the past four years CAN’d Aid has come to the aid of Flint, MI, residents during their clean water disaster, South Carolina and Louisiana flood victims, and now Texas and Florida residents as a result of two fierce storms.

Sending water is just part of the four wide-reaching programs CAN’d Aid Foundation maintains. Not afraid to get wet and dirty, CAN’d Aid Foundation jumps in to assist with the real hard stuff like digging out communities after floods, which is known as the Towns Program, trail maintenance, building bikes for low-income kids and promoting environmental education through the Treads and Trails Program, supporting music and arts programs through the Tunes Program, and anything that makes Mother Earth a better place in the Love Yur Mama Program.

The organization is funded publicly and, as noted on the donation page, Oskar Blues Brewery is matching all donations up to $50K. To learn more and to make donations go to http://www.candaid.org.