By Aimee Hancock
PIQUA — The Piqua Community Foundation has partnered with Piqua residents Cheryl and Jim Burkhardt to present “Hop Town, Summer in the City,” an adult goodie-bag fundraising venture to celebrate summertime.
“(The Burkhardts) like to do projects that benefit the community, so when COVID hit, they had to revamp how they were doing those,” said Piqua Community Foundation (PCF) Executive Director Michelle Perry.
According to Perry, the Burkhardts first tried a goodie bag-type fundraising project through a partnership with Main Street Piqua, which was called “Twelve Beers of Christmas.”
“Cheryl was on (the PCF) board for 22 years — she just retired in the fall — so she has a close connection with the foundation and she said she would like the foundation to be the next recipient of this,” Perry said. “We picked a theme of summertime, and (the Burkhardts) did research on all the holidays of summer and picked the beers to coordinate with that. They wrote the content suggesting food pairings that would be good with each beer and (recommendations) of songs to play while you’re enjoying them.”
Each bag is $100 and includes a reusable grocery bag filled with 12 bottles of summertime beers with recommended food and song pairings; two mini pilsner tasting glasses, sponsored by Koverman Staley Dickerson Insurance; a one-of-a-kind bottle opener made from a baseball bat, offered in partnership with Phoenix Bats; a meat spice rub packet from Rosebuds, sponsored by Brandi Lawson of Keller Williams Home Town Realty; $15 in local food gift certificates.
With the purchase of each bag, buyers will automatically be entered into a drawing for the chance to win a 10-person food-beer-music pairing dinner at their home, with a theme of their choice, curated and prepared by The Beer Thinkers, a group of beer-minded Piqua residents, including the Burkhardts and Joe and Kazy Hinds.
All funds raised from the event will go into the PCF’s unrestricted account to held support the foundation’s operations and grant-making funds.
“This is a fun little kick-off-to-summer project,” Perry said. “The Burkhardts just bring such a great energy, they’re well-known around here, and just have this knowledge and ability to make a fun experience.”
To purchase a bag, visit www.piquacommunityfoundation.org. The drive-up bag pick-up is on Thursday, June 3, 2021, from 5 to 7 p.m., and supplies are limited.
