Dear TRENDS Diary,
I’m the founder and president of Mythology Distillery. We’re a whiskey, gin and vodka distillery based in Denver. Similar to many other Colorado distilleries, we switched our production to hand sanitizer to help first responders and organizations in need.
There’s a mass shortage of hand sanitizer out there because there’s a lack of high-proof alcohol. As a distillery we make high-proof alcohol so we have the unique ability to help.
We have a number of family members that are emergency room doctors and we were finding out they don’t have access to it.
I was an affordable housing developer for 10 years, so I know a lot of groups that help at-risk communities. I was talking to Andy Allison, a Boulder-area affordable developer, and Isabel McDevitt, the head of Boulder nonprofit Bridge House, which helps unhoused individuals. These are folks who don’t have access to wash their hands after every interaction. So we have donated sanitizer to Bridge House for their clients.
We made a significant monetary donation to Operation Family Meal to provide free meals to people from the service industry. We are also helping our restaurant and bars accounts in various ways.
It’s been really rewarding work. We’ve donated to doctors, nurses, police officers, the Marines, firefighters, at risk communities and hospital workers. They all give us this incredibly genuine thank you for what we’re trying to do. It’s given us an added purpose right now.
As a small business owner, it’s beyond words to see people come together and try to help. Owning a business, we deal and adapt to business disruptions all the time; not like this, but there’s always something to handle. This is our time to shine and help the community.
– Scott Yeates, as told to Shay Castle
