ORANGE — The Friends of the Orange Public Libraries and the Honest Weight Artisan Brewery have decided to mash together residents’ love of books and beer.
The two have organized a “Library Night at the Brewery” from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday.
The celebration, reserved for people 21 or older, will be the culmination of the libraries’ Adult Summer Reading Club and there will be raffles to raise money for the Orange Food Pantry, this year’s Reading Club fundraising recipient. The raffle prize will be Honest Weight gift certificates.
“We’re all hopped up to introduce the Honest Weight Artisan Brewery to our patrons,” Manuel King, the adult services librarian at the Wheeler Memorial Library, said in a statement. “If you haven’t yet tasted their excellent, hand-crafted beers, then this your opportunity. It’s definitely going to be a love fest — we love their beer and they love our library.”
King said this is a chance for people to talk about their favorite books and their favorite beers. He said there will be free tastings and beer for purchase at Honest Weight, which opened in November 2015 and is inside the Orange Innovation Center at 131 West Main St. He explained he is friends with Honest Weight co-owners/brewers Sean Nolan and Jay Sullivan and was chatting with them in their tasting room when he got the idea for a “Library Night at the Brewery,” originally hoping to name it “Augtoberfest,” a combination of the current month and Oktoberfest, the famous beer festival in Munich, Germany.
Nolan said King proposed the idea and Nolan secured Sun Kim Bop, a Korean food truck, for the event.
King said the event will subsidize the contribution to the Orange Food Pantry from the Friends of the Orange Public Libraries. He explained people sign up for the libraries’ Adult Summer Reading Club and Friends donate 25 cents for every book read. King said 41 people read roughly 350 books to raise about $90 this year, while last year 60 people generated $137.50.
“Last year was better than this year,” King said. “This event is a way to raise a little bit more money.”
King also said the firefighters union in Athol contributed $100 to the Orange Food Pantry.