It's been a nice program for us and I really think people enjoy coming out and helping out." "It brings these two seemingly different passions together all at once. "We all like to volunteer and we all love beer," said Melby. This year, more than 500 volunteers will decorate 35 different locations in Boston Worcester, Mass. Every year the list of places the decorations are put up has grown. Harpoon started with a small list, putting up the holiday decorations inside about 15 homeless shelters and community organizations with 150 volunteers. "We had all of these holiday decorations and rather than discarding them, we said, 'Let's go out there and put them up,"' said Melby. The brewery used to host an outdoor Christmas festival, but repeated bad weather soured them on the event and they stopped having it.
The Harpoon Helps Spread Holiday Cheer event began in 2004. The brewery also donated 28,000 pints of beers to different charity events and logged more than 1,800 charity hours. Last year alone, Harpoon Helps raised nearly $180,000 for charity. "We go out and buy them a round of beer." "There is a little enticement," she said.
The brewery does offer something in return. "I think most people want to do something great for their community." "We have something going every few weeks, and we send out an e-mail to ask people to help us with these different missions," said Melby. Some of the events include working on cleaning beaches with Save the Harbor, Save the Bay putting together Braille books community farming and bike rides and races. Throughout the years, Harpoon Helps has sponsored numerous community events, as well as several blood drives. The mission is to be a good neighbor in the community and to invite our customers to join us in this endeavor." "We had this group of beer drinkers who wanted to do something nice in their community and volunteer. "We had an overwhelming response from people who wanted to come out and help," said Melby. They needed more volunteers than they had at the brewery, so they asked for help through the e-mail newsletter. The brewery started the program several years ago with the Harpoon Five Mile run, which raised money for ALS research and the Angel Fund. Melby said the brewery sends out alerts to the members of the Friends of Harpoon program via e-mail about different charity events in which the brewery is participating. Last year, the brewery donated nearly $8,000 worth of gift cards to the various shelters. "Dunkin Donuts is a good one - just buying a cup of coffee goes a long way," she added. Melby suggests people donate gift cards from places like Target, Wal-Mart, Stop & Shop, businesses that are easily accessible and where people can take public transportation. "We just like to leave something under the tree so people can enjoy the holidays," said Melby. The brewery is looking for people to donate gift cards, which they will distribute to the various homeless shelters, which will in turn give them as gifts to their clients. More than 500 volunteers will decorate 33 homeless shelters and community organizations with holiday decorations and Christmas trees, brewery Director of Communications Liz Melby said. This year, the brewery and its customers will take part in the fifth annual Harpoon Helps Spread Holiday Cheer event on Dec. Boston's Harpoon Brewery is one of the most successful craft breweries in the country, and it uses that success to try to give something back through its Harpoon Helps program.
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