WHITEHALL — Local breweries and businesses have started banding together to help North Grove Brewers, after a kitchen fire last Thursday forced the business to temporarily close.
Wednesday night, Fetch Brewing Company hosted their first fundraiser, opening their space for the Oat Bran Boys to perform. The Oat Bran Boys usually spend their Wednesday evenings performing at North Grove, and the fire prompted them to reach out to Fetch.
“It’s a difficult thing,” Oat Bran Boys double bassman Richie King said. “I’m good friends with RJ (Nordlund, one of the North Grove owners). I know these people personally and they’ve been supportive of us, having us play there. We wanted to raise some money, so we’re doing this both this week and next week. You want to help your friends.”
All tips given to the Oat Bran Boys went to North Grove, in addition to an open donation box. Additionally, Fetch honored all North Grove “mug club” members, offering $1 off their purchase of beer or hard cider. Fetch also made their own donation.
“We reached out to (co-owner) Jason (Jaekel) the following day,” said Fetch owner Dan Hain. “I personally talked to him on the street and he said to hold off on doing anything. We were proposing, ‘What can we do for you? Can we help you brew some beer?’ We were proposing a bunch of different ideas. He was saying, ‘I don’t know right now because it just happened.’ Then the Oat Bran Boys reached out to us and said they had two dates that they could play, they were going to play at North Grove, but they proposed to play here. We said, absolutely. We incorporated that with a benefit to help North Grove.”
Similarly, Sawyers Brewing Company is hosting two benefits for North Grove. The Dave and Shawn Show will perform this Friday, April 19 and The Substitutes will perform the following day, on Saturday. One-fourth of revenue generated during the two events will go to North Grove, for cleanup, restoration and rebuilding. Both acts will begin at 7 p.m.
Unruly Brewing in Muskegon will also have a fundraiser for North Grove, scheduled for May 4 starting at 4 p.m.
“We started scouring social media and texting anybody that knew anything,” Hain said. “It’s always trying to help out anybody that’s in need, especially breweries, because everyone always tries to take care of each other in the brewing industry. It’s a really close-knit family. It’s kind of bizarre. Anybody in the industry reaches out, you don’t think about it because they’re always helping you. We’ve helped them out before and they’ve helped me, whatever we can do.”
The White Lake business community is excited and supportive of one another, especially when new businesses are introduced. North Grove patron Leighton “Flat Cap” Seys started helping by offering firewood to Jaekel when they were first getting ready to open. This prompted a good, supportive and loyal friendship.
“I already knew Jason,” said Seys. “He was at the church I was at and was talking about starting this up. I was pretty excited about that, that we’re getting something new. I think we’re always better off when we have two or three of the same industry in a town. You get really good camaraderie and competition. I wanted to step in and support him, and be able to support people doing new things in the community.”
Many regular patrons, along with other community members were shocked and saddened to hear about the fire, leaving Facebook comments supporting North Grove as it updated customers.
“I was incredibly shocked,” Seys said. “I wanted to figure out what we could do to help. They’ve been great supporters of mine - Jason, RJ and the entire crew over there. They even let me do some podcasting from their brewery. I thought, ‘What can we do and how can we rally the community around them?’ I started getting hold of people I know and looking online to find out what was going on. If there’s anything I can do to get the word out about supporting people in the community, I want to help with that.”
The Oat Bran Boys will be performing at Fetch again Wednesday, April 24 at 6:30 p.m., with all tips and proceeds going to North Grove.
