In the first year Houghton Rotary supported young people and education by donating proceeds of Keweenaw Brewfest to the Portage Lake District Library. Last year the group used the event to help out Copper Shores Meals on Wheels. And in 2025 Keweenaw Brewfest will support the Omega House. Houghton Rotary member Eric Stier says rotary clubs want to make a difference in people’s lives, no matter their age.
It’s Omega House’s 20th year this year and lot of their equipment is starting to get of that age. And it just made a great fit uh for us to really help support this all in. And this is a combination of money that comes from BrewFest, but also our Rotary District grant kicks in as well for us to be able to donate even more. – Eric Stier, Keweenaw Brewfest Coordinator, Houghton Rotary Club
Last year the Houghton Rotary Club donated a little more than 22,000 dollars to support meals on wheels. In 2023 the festival’s proceeds helped the portage lake district library with infrastructure work. Stier says the Omega House plans to use funds for improving the aging facility.
just something that we might think of as a simple project as they need more storage for example. So all of these other fundraisers that they do for themselves which are great. They do their golf outing and they sponsor Calumet theater events and all of those donations help. – Eric Stier, Keweenaw Brewfest Coordinator, Houghton Rotary Club
Many Rotary Club members will help at Keweenaw Brewfest by volunteering during the day. The event needs a lot of help, even beyond the rotary club, and welcomes volunteers from the community to join the group.
We have almost all of our Rotary members, unless they’re out of town, all spend a lot of time on this event and all of our events through the year. But any community members that want to volunteer, can go to our website and there’s a volunteer tab. We need servers as well as people to help clean up, uh set up, take down, uh security, people who work the ticket counter. There’s plenty of need for volunteers and we’ve never been disappointed with the community support. – Eric Stier, Keweenaw Brewfest Coordinator, Houghton Rotary Club
Throughout the year the Rotary club supports educational scholarships, and volunteers throughout the community. The organization created Keweenaw Brew fest in 2023 to help raise funds to support local initiatives. The fun event has brought in hundreds of people to enjoy a day on the Houghton Waterfront pier, mingle with friends, and sample a wide selection of beer, ciders, canned cocktails, and wine. This year’s event will take over the pier on September 13th. Moving the event past the area’s busiest part of the summer into a more autumn like time of the year. Tickets for the Keweenaw Brewfest cost 50 dollars per person. Attendees of Keweenaw Brewfest MUST BE 21 YEARS OLD OR OLDER.
