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Event Wed Sep 22 2010
A Cause for a Celebration of Beer
"I do enjoy a cold one now and then," says Erin Kearns, a chair of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Festiv-ale. The Greater Illinois chapter's fourth annual "celebration of beer" on Friday, September 24, will bring together beer lovers like Kearns and supporters of the foundation (a cross section that probably overlaps quite a bit). This year's Festiv-ale has 11 vendors showcasing their wares, including local breweries Piece, Walter Payton's Roundhouse, Flossmoor Station, Half Acre, and Brickstone.
For $50, you can get into the main event at the Ravenswood Event Center (4011 N. Ravenswood Ave), which includes unlimited tastes from all 11 breweries and food from Pompei, Wow Bao, and Cabot Creamery. The VIP section, which you can get into for an additional $25, includes a separate tasting area, a gift bag with goodies like Two Brothers beer and Qdoba gift certificates, and private bathrooms--"always a plus at a beer tasting!" says Kearns.
Kearns has a personal connection to the foundation: her godson, the child of her best friend Mary, was diagnosed with CF at ten weeks. "Michael is now three-and-a-half and is doing great," says Kearns, who's a member of the Greater Illinois CFF chapter's Young Professionals Leadership Committee. "His younger brother, Dylan, is a year and a half and also has CF."
In addition to helping to plan the Festiv-ale, Kearns will donate $100 for a new raffle at this year's event: 65 Bottles of Beer. "We're selling just 65 raffle tickets," says Kearns. The winner gets a trip to the March 2011 Philly Craft Beer Festival.
For more information and to buy tickets, see the CFF's website.