Help our friends at JJ's and win

With the events that unfolded for JJ's Restaurant on Tuesday night, Kansas City suffered many losses. Loss of a life; loss of a historic building; loss of a 28-year-old restaurant renowned for its wine list. And for those staff members who worked at JJ's, they experienced loss of their jobs and source of income in an instant. Unfortunately though, bills and expenses don't stop just because you are out of work. We in the beer community should have no lack of appreciation for those in the service industry. Through the events we attend and our general beer-drinking routines, we experience firsthand the hard work of bartenders, servers, chefs and more. Heck, I know for a fact that many readers of the blog work in the service industry. The people affected by the tragic fire at JJ's are our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues. And they need our support.


So, how can we help? That's the question I've asked myself over the past few days. Then, I saw that local chef Terry Mille had started an Indiegogo fundraiser page for the employees and staff of JJ's, and something clicked. I got on the horn (can you still say that if it was via text?) with some of the fantastic people in the Kansas City beer community and within hours, I secured donations for a couple awesome beer-centric prize packages to be part of a raffle. Right now, we are looking at something along these lines:

Prize Package 1
- $100 Flying Saucer gift card
- 4 Hands Brewing Company prize pack, including bottles of No Place Like Home, Chocolate Milk Stout and War Hammer, a hoodie, and a tour and tasting session at the brewery.
- A basic brewers starter kit courtesy of Cowtown Brew Supply
- A set of custom brewery canvas prints (pick from Boulevard, Mother's, Santa Fe or Lagunitas) courtesy of Central States Beverage

Prize Package 2
- Chef's dinner for two at Julian (valued at $100)
- $25 Bier Station gift card and interactive Randalling session
- North Kansas City Beverage prize pack, including a Green Flash cooler, Summit Brewing Co. retro metal cooler, Summit work shirt and Tallgrass Halcyon metal wall sign.
- Stone Anniversary set, including one bottle of Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA and one bottle of Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA.

To enter to win, head over to the Indiegogo fundraiser page (link also listed out at bottom) and make a contribution to help the staff of JJ's. For every $10 you donate, you are entered to win one of the prize packages listed above. There is no limit on entries, so the more you donate, the more entries you have to win. Just forward your donation receipt e-mail to me at pat.j.mullin at gmail dot com and you are entered. It's that simple. And if you've already donated before today, don't worry; you are still eligible. Just forward me your receipt e-mail and I'll get you entered.

The Indiegogo fundraiser page will close at the end of the day on Thursday, March 7th, so I will be keeping this open for entries for that entire period. Good luck to all, and HUGE thank yous to not only everybody who was so quick to generously help me put this raffle together, but also to anyone who donates. We're all in this together, so let's show what Kansas City pride and community is all about.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fundraiser-for-the-employee-s-and-staff-of-jj-s-restaurant?c=home