If you’ve dropped into the Thirsty Squirrel, Honeycomb Grill, St. Bernard’s or Argenta Pub for a frosty pint of beer this season at Solitude Ski Resort, you may have seen some very good girls on the Moab Brewery tap handles.
Meet Solitude’s avalanche dogs Rio, Lumen and Joni.
These three working girls are the inspiration for a new charitable collaboration between Solitude and Moab Brewery. For every pint sold from a Moab Brewery tap handle in the Thirsty Squirrel, the brewery makes a donation to the non-profit Wasatch Backcountry Rescue’s avalanche dog training program.
Ketti Wehrle, manager of the Thirsty Squirrel and co-parent of Solitude’s youngest avalanche pup, Joni, designed the season-long fundraiser as a way to invest in the local mountain community.
Wehrle chose to work with Moab Brewery because of the company’s longtime focus on promoting adventure and safety in the outdoors and with the help of Moab Brewery head of sales, Scott Davis, a tail-wagging, season-long fundraiser began.
Regular customers of the Thirsty Squirrel know that Solitude’s avalanche dogs and their handlers are frequent visitors and love to spend their apres time hanging out after a day of work. Guests have so much fun getting to meet the dogs so Wehrle and Davis saw their fundraiser as a way to channel that excitement into support for the dogs’ training and success through the work of Wasatch Backcountry Rescue.
Alongside Joni, a German wirehaired pointer and chocolate lab mix who turned two this month, the Moab Brewery pint pour also celebrates Rio, a nine-year-old yellow lab and Lumen, a five-year-old black lab and pointer mix.
Joni has been working with her handler, Jasper Anderson, since she was a puppy and they will take the exam to become a certified avalanche dog team this spring.
Rio loves the snow and searching and when she finds the hidden person during a search drill, her reward is playing tug-of-war. Rio’s primary handler is Solitude mountain operations manager Marvin Sumner.
Lumen’s favorite toy is a Frisbee, and she loves hugs. Earlier this winter, Lumen and her handler, Trevor John, flew to Switzerland to attend dog school in the Alps.
This coming Saturday, February 29, is your chance to meet all three pups and also further help Wasatch Backcountry Rescue. From 5-8 p.m., sip on Moab Brewery beers at the Thirsty Squirrel while enjoying live music from Dave Rohrer and an opportunity drawing for prizes–with all proceeds benefiting Wasatch Backcountry Rescue dog programs. There will also be T-shirts for sale and Moab Brewery will be on site with beer tastings and giveaways.
Even if you can’t make it up to the slopes for the Saturday fundraiser, every pint of Moab Brewery beer enjoyed at Solitude this season means a donation. Cheers!
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