Brews for a
Chili Night
ADDING HEAT AND HOPS TO HELP MT. LEBANON LIBRARY.
BY KATHY RUDOLPH
Taming the flame of a bowl of savory, spicy chili with an ice-cold beer is like peanut butter and jelly, cookies and milk, or macaroni and cheese— both taste better together.
“ It seems if you add beer to any event, everybody shows up,” laughs M. A. Jackson, senior library assistant at Mt. Lebanon Public Library.
But Jackson and co-organizer James( Bob) Hagerty know how to host two annual beer-tasting fundraisers that rival a fun night out at the best breweries around Pittsburgh. Drawing 250 to 300 people each, and raising more than $ 12,000 annually for the library, the Beer Garden Bash( held each August) and Brews for a Chili Night( coming up on Jan. 27) are on tap for another“ hoppy” year. The funds go toward programming, new equipment, furniture and more.
According to Hagerty, who wrote about the history of the beer-tasting fundraisers, it all started with volunteer Mimi Ingalls.
After approval from the library’ s then-director, Cindy Richey, Ingalls and another volunteer, Petra Fey, organized
Mt. Lebanon Library’ s first beer-tasting fundraiser. About 95 people came and sampled European imports on an August evening in the library’ s courtyard.
Deemed a success, Ingalls and a group of volunteers that included Jackson, Hagerty and others decided to host a repeat beer-tasting fundraiser in January amongst the library’ s shelves. Jackson came up with the event name—“ Brews for a Chili Night”— after the group decided to add chili to the menu.
Flash forward to almost nine years later, where both events are now hosted
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