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

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Twice a year, every year for the past two decades, thousands of people devote hours of volunteer work in Austin parks.

It’s My Park Day is a semi-annual day of service organized by the community-led Austin Parks Foundation. It is held on the first Saturday of every November and March. Volunteers come together to help improve community gardens by doing work like cleaning up litter, mulching trees, and managing invasive species, according to APF. Website.

Volunteers work on projects in hundreds of parks throughout Austin during “Park Day,” said Colin Wallis, CEO of the Austin Parks Foundation. “We do work all over Austin, in parks in your neighborhood, in my neighborhood, in everyone’s neighborhood,” he said.

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

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

Projects vary by park, “they’re very unique to each community,” he said.

“Doing good things while drinking beer”

In addition to the thousands of people who show up to support the mission of the Austin Parks Foundation every six months, Wallis said the foundation is also supported by 20 to 25 local business partners, like Zilker Brewing, who also support the foundation.

On Saturday, a few hours after this fall’s edition of It’s My Park Day ended, Zilker Brewing co-founder Patrick Clark presented Wallis with a check.

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 and Rec” pale ale.

This partnership originally began in 2017 as a collaboration between APF and Zilker Brewing to celebrate Zilker Park’s 100th birthday by releasing what was supposed to be a limited edition beer, but has since continued.

“We did a collaboration, and they gave us a portion of the proceeds back for Zilker,” Wallis said. “And once the 100th anniversary was over, we kind of met up again, and they said, ‘Well, that was great…’ and it was one of our biggest-selling beers, so we decided to keep doing it.”

“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 last year’s proceeds,” Wallis explained.

During the eight years Zilker Brewing has worked with APF, it has raised more than $60,000 for the organization, Clark said.

“We are very excited about the partnership,” Clark said before presenting the check to Wallis. “Thanks to everyone who drinks Parks & Rec, you do good things while drinking beer.”