MEEKER | The annual Oktoberfest celebration at Smoking River Brewery has become a community tradition in a few short years. The Lee and Elk fires nearly squelched it.
“We were going to cancel this year,” said co-owner Kristofer Borchard, noting that after the fire it didn’t seem right to have a celebration. That was until they started hearing stories about the local firefighters, work crews, ranchers, businesses, and individuals who worked to save homes and properties, and those who lost livestock, buildings, and more and needed help.
The family-owned business first looked into setting up a foundation, then learned about the Yampa Valley Community Foundation (YVCF) through Town Manager Mandi Etheridge.
According to Etheridge, YVCF offered to be the singular mechanism for donations coming in immediately after the fires. “They stood up an ad hoc committee to manage disbursement of those funds consisting of two Foundation members, one United Way representative, one Garfield County representative, and three from Rio Blanco. Applications to the fund must go through a non-profit organization and must be specifically for relief due to Lee and Elk fire impacts.”
The committee has already awarded some funds to the United Way to help with families that experienced loss due to evacuation and approximately $50K to the Conservation District as they are working with agricultural partners to help with recovery efforts. The Meeker Community Development Department is actively collecting requests to submit an application on behalf of local businesses.
YVCF continues to actively receive donations for fire recovery. Visit https://yvcf.org/funds/yampa-valley-disaster-recovery-fund/ to review grant guidelines or to donate online.
With a way to distribute funding, the Borchards decided to revive Oktoberfest with a twist: as a fire recovery fundraiser and time to recognize the heroes who worked tirelessly to help fight the fire and to help their neighbors. On Saturday, Oct. 11, starting at 2 p.m., the Brewery will feature live music by local bands, food, games, awards, and, of course, beer.
All the food is being donated: Stanley Crawford volunteered to cook a pig; TX Tea, Rigg’s and the Brewery are providing side dishes. Someone else donated T-shirts, and another person donated plaques to be presented to different businesses, communities, town and county departments, volunteers and more.
Meals are $20 a plate for adults, $10 a plate for kids under 10. All the proceeds from the meal and $1 from the purchase of every “Fireman Freshie” beer, will go toward the YVCF fund.
Depending on the weather, the awards presentation, scheduled for 6:30 p.m., may start earlier, around 5 or 5:30 p.m..
Returning for the annual event are some favorite activities: the spicy sausage-eating contest, the stein hold contest, and the beer chugging contest.
T-shirts and steins with unique 2025 artwork designed by Meeker High School art teacher Ben Quinn will be available for purchase, with profits going toward the recovery fund.