How a specialty beer raises thousands of dollars for Austin parks each year

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Twice a year, every year for the last two decades, thousands of people dedicate hours of volunteer work to Austin’s parks.

It’s My Park Day is Austin Parks Foundation’s biannual, community-led day of service. It’s held on the first Saturday of each November and March. Volunteers gather to help improve community parks through doing work like litter cleanup, tree mulching, and invasive species management, according to APF’s website.

Colin Wallis, CEO of the Austin Parks Foundation, said volunteers work on projects in hundreds of parks across Austin during It’s My Park Day. “We’re doing work all over Austin, in parks in your neighborhood, my neighborhood, and everybody’s neighborhood,” he said.

Wallis estimated that about 4,000 people were out participating in the effort on Saturday morning.

“Austin’s parks are underfunded, and so this is a great opportunity every year for the community to come out,” Wallis said. “And it allows our community to kind of give back to the spaces that they love.”

He said the projects vary depending on the park, “it’s very unique to each community.”

‘Doing good things while drinking beer’

Beyond the thousands of people who show up to support the Austin Parks Foundation’s mission every six months, Wallis said the foundation is also supported by 20-25 local business partners, like Zilker Brewing, that support the foundation as well.

On Saturday, a few hours after this year’s fall iteration of It’s My Park Day wrapped up, Zilker Brewing co-founder Patrick Clark presented a check to Wallis.

The $9,365 check was a donation from the brewery to APF, funded by a portion of the brewery’s annual sales of its specialty “Parks & Rec” pale ale.

That partnership originally started in 2017 as a collaboration between APF and Zilker Brewing to celebrate Zilker Park’s 100th birthday by launching what was supposed to be a limited edition ale, but then it just kept going.

“We did a collaboration, and they gave a portion of the proceeds back to us to benefit Zilker,” Wallis said. “And then once the 100th anniversary was over, we sort of met again, and they’re like, ‘well, this has been great…’ And it’s been like one of their biggest-selling beers, and so we decided to keep it going.”

“So now every year, they give a portion of the proceeds to the Parks Foundation, and we’re here today to accept a check for a portion of the proceeds from the last year,” Wallis explained.

Clark said that in the eight years Zilker Brewing has been working with APF, it has raised over $60,000 for the foundation.

“We’re super stoked about the partnership,” Clark said before presenting the check to Wallis. “Thanks everyone that drinks Parks & Rec, you’re doing good things while you’re drinking beer.”

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