Emily Howell, Aubrey Chamberlayne and Nan Pena of Capital Ale House at Kanawha Plaza
I’m so grateful to Richmond.com for allowing me the freedom to explore so many broad topics with my Why Richmond, Why?!? column, but I love it even more when the column helps make a difference in the community.
In April, we published a Why Richmond, Why?!? where we addressed the poor condition of Kanawha Plaza, a public park and green space in the heart of downtown Richmond. The park has a consistent homeless population and a propensity to gather more garbage and recyclable materials than it should.
The park needs to be adopted and have a more consistent cleanup effort — something beyond what the City of Richmond crews normally do — and the folks at Capital Ale House didn’t hesitate to step up. They have a program called “Beer Corps” where their employees volunteer and help do various service projects around the community and thanks to them reading my column, saw the need and signed up to adopt the park.
I posted a followup article this week, which I’m happy to say got plenty of hits and spread the word of Capital Ale House’s stewardship. I got a chance a couple of days after the article was posted to speak with Emily Howell (PR for Capital Ale House) and Matthew Simmons (one of the owners, the one who suggested the Beer Corps get involved) and thank them in person.
Richmond is full of opportunities to take ownership in helping make our communities better and it is such a pleasure to be involved with helping make a connection.
Phil Riggan 