SPEAKER_02 0:06

The Buffalo Bruce Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

We are located at the ARK, Erie County, New York. That's correct. Yeah. How about some introductions and we'll and we're gonna get going here?

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Yeah, absolutely. I'm I'm Luke Cantor, director of uh marketing and community outreach here for the Arc, Erie County, New York. Get to do all the uh fun stuff and champion all the hard work.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Yeah, and then to to my right, um now you get the green jacket now officially because uh this will be your third podcast appearance. Tom Whitmarsh from the Western New York Beer Trail.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Western New York Beer Trail and serving on the committee uh for the Ale Trail, helping Luke out get this set up for uh next week and uh having a great time doing it.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Nice. Uh Luke, tell me about the basis or like the mission for the Arc.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Yeah, absolutely. Um the Arc Erie County, New York. Um, we started 75 years ago, which is pretty awesome. We just hit our birthday, and we support children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Um we have a bunch of different IRAs where folks live, you know, that's home, about 25 of those. We have a couple different clinics uh where we do OTPT and speech therapy, uh keep folks moving, uh, keep them uh healthy. And then we have two schools. So we have a school age child program where uh you know folks will go all the way up to age 22, but then also an early intervention program so that way we can work with them and get them to back to their home school district uh for special ed. Um whole bunch of different stuff. We have day habits, respite programs, tons of stuff. Uh, but again, we just make sure that everybody has a a great quality of life and uh you know we're we're family, we take care of folks, and and we have about 1200 people that we serve every year in their families. So that's tens of thousands of people over that 75 year span.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

I, you know, taking um going down the rabbit hole if as far as the history was concerned, I had to stop myself because it you know with 75 years, it goes back so far that there's so many intricate details, the evolution of the arc and and and what it's become today. And I didn't know it was so expansive. I didn't know that there were so many, so many branches and that there were so many different uh areas that were involved, and then the number of services that you it's wild. It's wild.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

It's definitely uh and you know, we're part of the Ark New York, we're part of the Ark of the U.S. Um there are chapters in almost every single county, which is pretty wild. Uh so it's definitely uh it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Okay, yeah, and then what we're here today to uh to talk about, because we're gonna bounce back and forth in between services of the ark because you got some great things that were that are coming up that we were talking about in the hallway. Uh, but we're we're here because beer connects us. And uh and Tom was Tom was great in bringing in some uh tasty waves, bruh from Griffin Brewing that we're uh we're snacking on here. Uh this was part of the um the the Buffalo beer draft that we had when the uh when the Sabres were hosting the NHL draft here in town. So uh I don't know, maybe it's a good opportunity for us to have a little cheer here. Cheers. That's what I've yeah. Things like this, you know, bring us together, and we are uh here to talk about the ale trail that's coming up uh next Thursday, Thursday, September 24th, and it's gonna be right here on the the Ark property. Yeah. So you've so I always drove by and I see the sign from the throughway when I uh when I come by. Um so my podcast co-host, she uh works um at one of the local law firms, and she used to walk these trails all the time when she would come over here on lunch because it was just a way to get out of the office for 30 minutes. Um so how did you this property here, the the the woods here, how did you how'd you come across all this?

SPEAKER_02 4:01

Yeah, it used to be the old Madai College, and uh years back we bought it and uh moved over from Oak Street. Again, yeah, that that change with the arc, you know, our different locations, our different services, they're pretty wild, they've evolved. Um but here is is home now, you're right. This is our home base, and uh we are lucky enough to have this uh walking path uh behind us, but then we paved it. It's a quarter mile long. Um a lot of folks from the community end up uh walking it. You know, we had a bunch of the businesses across the street, like Anger Micro was right there, they'd walk the trail all day long. Um but it's great, it's a hidden resource, you know, and it's awesome for Ale Trail. That's where we set all of our vendors up. Um everybody uh pours samples there, um, just you string up fancy lights through the woods, uh, the leaves are falling. It it's a great time.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

And now and this is the sixth year for the event, and your biggest year yet, because we were talking also in the hallway about how you were we went from 31 to now 45 different uh vendors that you're gonna have on site.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

It's wild. So I've been with the ARC for about a year and a half now, and uh so last year was my first one. We were in the high 20s for breweries and and wineries um two years ago, and so you know pushed pretty hard and and we got it up to 31 last year and had over 600 people there, and it was great. And then this year pushed even harder and uh had uh help from uh folks like Tom on the committee and and Jim and uh Kathy and a bunch of other folks, and uh it's it's wild. Literally, uh I just did an event uh locally, and uh the sign that I had up had 42 on it. I printed these literally the night before and that had 43 for the flyer. And then uh I talked to some folks there and they said, Yeah, absolutely, we're in this is awesome, great cause. And so I was like, Okay, good, got a magic marker from the fireman behind us, right, and wrote 45 on the board. So it it's growing, it's it's awesome. You know, the fact that again for the cost, you can come out and have I mean that that's each place is less than a dollar. That's nuts.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Right, right. And uh, you know, and then having now this within a quarter mile paved trail, it's gonna be a great opportunity. It's gonna be just like walking through a like a beer festival for the evening. Absolutely, and the price is is amazing. So to go to uh to go down the list here for your um pricing, you're talking about $40 for $30 for an alcohol tasting ticket, unlimited samples. Unlimited. And then if you're uh if you're the uh the NA and the D D type, that's um that's a $10 uh ticket to come in. It's gonna be from 4 30 until 9 p.m. for next um for next Thursday the 24th. And then I wanted to shift uh attention because you know the uh all things uh all things ale and and beer within Western New York, yeah. You can't sometimes cannot happen without uh without Tom. But Tom, how'd you become involved with the Ark?

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Yeah, so I want to touch on Luke Luke mentioned just a few minutes ago um that the Ark is a hidden resource. And uh if anybody knows me and my family and and what we've been doing the last few years through Beer Trail and um supporting autism awareness um initiatives and things like that. Um the Ark was largely an unknown until Luke reached out to me last year. Um I didn't really know about the L Trail. Um he invited me to partake last year or participate last year. Um it was a little bit early in our season. Um this year we're ready, so we'll we'll talk about that in a little bit. But uh yeah, so I got to really observe last year, you know, of course, taste some beers last year, but uh observe what was going on, the setup, um, and really get a feel for what was going on. As soon as that was over, um I told Luke, you know, if you put together any sort of committee, anything like that, that I wanted to be involved, help out, help recruit, you know, more vendors to pour, you know, anything to to make it bigger and better and and help them on their mission with with this fundraiser. So uh it was just easy.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Yeah, you and I are uh a lot alike in that sense, because I go to a festival and I'm always helpful as I go into you know the the layout and uh and who they've got. Real estate is always uh really important. Uh you know, you get some that are just unfortunately somebody get stuck in the corner and then they're not getting so well seen. But then you can do something like outdoors or like one of the state festivals that they do outs outdoors, and everybody's got great real estate to be able to just interact with literally everybody, or like when we do the golf outing, it's just you you're on literally an assigned trail. You're gonna see everybody as you go along.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Yeah, with the path here too. Um it just naturally pulls everybody through. And with what we have planned for set up this year, there's going to be plenty to see around the entire trail and wonderful partake in, and we're gonna do some fun stuff we can talk about, talk about that coming up too.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Okay. Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna bounce back to the to the arc here because one of the things that I read about and that you were talking to me about in the hallway is you got a project that's uh on the brink of opening. Two weeks.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Two weeks, two weeks. And uh it's scary and awesome at the same time. Uh Blackwater Acres. It's our sensory-informed inclusive farm out in Alden on uh Slade, the 170 Slade. And uh we have our ribbon cutting and 75th celebration on October 8th. Uh but we are once we get that C of O, we're we're having programming uh ready to go. We have folks that are lined up and their family signed them up for programming, and we're just waiting on that. Right now we're running out of a church out in Alden, you know, as like a temporary hub. Okay. Um, but uh 152, four, something like that, uh over 150 acres was donated to us um by the the Wetzel family. And uh it's very it's awesome. You know, we collaborated with them on a couple different projects, and then uh our CEO and uh the Wetzels were sitting around, you know, having a drink, and uh all good things happened over sitting around having a beer, and and they said, Hey, we have this idea. And uh there was a farm out in Ohio, uh bittersweet farms, and it was uh you know for folks with like autism and uh developmental disabilities, whole bunch of stuff. And uh they said, Let's let's make that, let's make that here. So then they bought property, uh, they put up a bunch of senior housing nearby, and then they gifted the rest of the aircraft, which is awesome. Um we have uh we just put up a 12,000 square foot building, so we're gonna house a bunch of our programming out there for like day habs and respite, um, but it's also wedding rental space or event rental space. Okay. Um, you know, maybe we have a second uh ale trail that's out there or some kind of big uh spring bash or something out there. Um but all of those different things out of uh Blackwater Acres, um they're putting our our folks that we support front and foremost. So when we have the agritourism stuff, uh like the UPEC pumpkins, I know we were chatting out in the hallway. Um families come out there, um the for people with developmental disabilities that go through the program uh and workforce training, they're the ones that are gonna be handing out the hot chocolate. They're the folks that are gonna be running the hay rides, they're the ones that are gonna be working the UPEG pumpkin areas. Um they'll have awesome jobs and uh it's cool, right? It's not a a forest inclusion, it's legit. Uh we have a big container farm, we're putting in a million-dollar project container farm out there to grow fancy lettuces year-round. Um, in ground plots, wildflowers, we have bees out there right now making honey and wax for us. Um, all of these different things, and it it's just gonna keep growing and growing and growing. Um it's a 20, 30, 40, 50 year project, you know, it's wild. Um, but to add that piece into the arc in our programming, it's awesome. It's exceptional. It's something that's very different. Uh I think a lot of other arcs throughout the US and New York and different providers, uh, we can collaborate with them and have them coming out on tours and educational visits and again tons of family activities and service that hub. That's what's important.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

And I like that idea too. And yeah, like you just said at the end, where um like other organizations or or folks could uh I guess I almost field trip out and spend uh some time and and see how you do things there, uh whether or not they would want to compare notes and do things uh elsewhere, because you're you're connected with the arc of New York State, as you said. The uh pumpkin farm uh i is is huge because I mean I last uh fall we did a tour where we just went around and just went to places that did ciders and donuts. But a lot of times we ended up on farms that did the hay rides, the you know, the the the baked goods, and uh it it was it's always full. I mean, you're going there and you're showing up at 9 a.m. when they open and the parking lot's already full.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Yeah, to have farmers markets and again we have a culinary program and different workforce uh development training, and and that's our folks, right? So when we have the farmers market and there's honey over here, our folks are the ones that got the honey into the containers and they made candles out of the wax and they uh went through the culinary program and baked all the goods, and then they grew the veggies uh for sale. And it's just uh it's so cool. It's such a uh really awesome concept and uh again it provides a lot of opportunities for folks.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

A great opportunity for them to, you know, uh learn trade as they go. It loot learns their inclusivity and their I I mean it gives them a place amongst the city. Yeah, and that sense of purpose.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

I mean, that sense of purpose is awesome, and and it it's I mean you almost can't even put it into words. It's such a it's such a cool concept, and again, I really like we're opening up in a couple weeks. It's been so stressful uh getting everything ready, you know, all the marketing stuff for it, and uh coming up with a website and and doing the brochures and everything and anything, but it's important, right? That end piece and people that from 40 years out from now, you know, if someday when I'm retired, you know, the place is still gonna be rocking, it's gonna be awesome. Families are gonna be out there, we're gonna help a lot of individuals uh and people with their uh their loved ones and take care of them, and that's great.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

I see things on the news from time to time where they highlight these businesses around the country that um emplo employ, you know, uh kids with uh downs or autism or other developmental disabilities and and they put them to work in bakeries or I I think I've seen a movie theater before and things like that. So to have a project like this in our backyard is just it's it's tremendous. I can't wait to see it. Um you know, my son Mike is 19. Uh so in a few short years he'll be aging out of high school. So, you know, um a project like this, uh availability of a program like this for him is is tremendous. And you know, I'm hoping that maybe at some point he has an interest and and is able to to go out and and do something at Blackwater. It'd be really cool to to know where it is now and and just opening and to hopefully have him involved in some way at some point would be really, really cool. I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Yeah, I just you know it's it's one of those things where you know I've talked with uh Tom before about um the the the the uh ant trail at um Letchworth and the the programs that the the that the ant does, but then I'm like I'm learning more about other organizations around Western New York, and then you know when I've never really done the deep dive into the arc and just say and the further I was reading, the further uh the more I loved it. Uh knowing that I mean I live not even two miles from here, and this is literally in my backyard. That it's working with you know folks all over Western New York, uh you know, giving them a place to uh I mean learn and develop.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Yeah, learn, grow, uh play, I mean just live life, you know, have a great uh have a great experience.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

And again, twenty twenty years being around um all of the available services and agencies, and everybody knows Summit and People Inc and things like that, but amazingly, somehow, I don't I don't know how people don't know about the arc. It it is again that hidden resource. Um and people the even other families that we talk to, when I tell them about what's going on here, they're like, What? We need more information. Right. Send us the information because we don't know about that either. Um so yeah, the more awareness we can bring anyway is a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Yeah, yeah. Um, you know, we'll we can shift back to the uh the ale trail, and uh I I know that you're you're almost antsy to uh to to talk about some some more things here. So when we I was bouncing back and forth, but um you hit you got some some new information now that uh that uh you're looking to share here.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Yeah, so this year um we were able to add some more vendors. Um there was a few four or five last year, yeah, vendors, um, aside from those that are pouring samples. Um so uh we got cigars, um Buffalo Gift Emporium, uh Noggle. If anybody knows the Noggle game and has seen him out, um he and I are gonna team up and uh he's gonna have his games here and uh we're gonna throw out a little Noggle challenge. Um five dollars um a try to beat Mark. Mark is the creator of Noggle. Oh five dollars a try if you can beat the hand your money up, right? The brand new 2027 trail passes will be available that evening. And uh those those will be the prizes. So for $5, take a chance to beat Mark. Now normally he's playing for drinks and things like that. So he puts money up on the board, things like that, but but we're gonna do trail passes. So uh if you if you know what the trail pass is and you've followed along for the last six years with us, uh the brand new ones will be out, and it'll be your chance to win right in, win one right out of the gate and and get going.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

I don't want to play him. I don't I I really don't. I really don't because he's always in the circle. It's like me three and and three other people, including him, and then we're all going around, and he's like, you know, it's like one of those people that says, look how simple it is. CCC.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Yeah. My buddy uh did roofing for a while. Yeah, and uh that's awesome. When Tom brought up Nago, I was like, wait a minute, I think I've I've played this many a times camping, you know, but this is way nicer. Like this looks legit, this is actually good. We were just slamming in the stumps, and uh, but yeah, he'd be doing the backflips behind the legs and driving those nails in with one hit. We nobody wanted to play with them, it was too good, you know. So uh that'll be a challenge, but it's awesome. Again, like Tom brought uh a bunch of new places and new ideas to Aletrail. So adding that committee on this here has helped it grown quite a bit, and uh, I'm thankful for it. I mean it's it's great.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

I had a blast. I love reaching out and getting places to sign up and and do this, and it it's surprising how how eager businesses are to participate and help out uh and make donations and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

So it's good when it's a good mission, when you're doing good, right? It's uh a little bit easier to sell, right? Because if it was just a paid you know beer event and people are okay, well, what are we getting out of this or or why are we doing this? Or uh because we are asking all of the companies to donate product, you know, and to send staff and and their time to come out to pour for us. So we're thankful of that. Um but uh yeah, you got a good mission. It's it's in easier to sell, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

It's it's gonna be when you're jumping again from 31 to 45 within a year, you're doing something right. The word's gotten out. Um I know last year it was one of those things that was like Tom you know talking to me with with uh being able to discuss this. I I'm I'm always on board to learn about new opportunities. And this is uh to me, I you know, I'm looking out because uh this is where the trail starts here. I'm looking behind the building. Um, you know, I like hiking, and obviously I've got a podcast about beer, so I I do like the opportunity to go out and try whatever it's a beer, wine, you know, you have cider, spirits, mead, and saucers.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

Literally everything. Yeah, it it's uh well that's you know, the again the name Ale Trail, uh, we added and more uh this year just because uh, you know, if you look at the 45, just under half are not beer. I mean, again, just just having like I think it's like 24, 25 different breweries, that's awesome, right? But then the fact of adding uh like uh nine different wineries and seven different distilleries, and you know, I don't know what those numbers are. I probably could count them. I should know, right? Run to the event, you think I know what's going on, but okay. It's uh come and discover it for yourself. I'll I'll come and figure it out. But it's cool having that aspect because last year we had a couple folks that came through and we do that, like post-event surveys, and folks are like, Hey, can you bring in a couple more wineries or bring in uh a couple more whatever? We'll bring in some seltzer. Okay, cool. So that was in the outreach attempts, you know, driving to every single place and schmoozing with them and dropping stuff off, and then emailing, then calling, then texting, then dropping a second set off, and then but it's paying off and it's cool, and it's gonna bring in a lot of money for the agency. It's gonna help a lot of folks out. It's gonna help us with projects like Blackwater Acres that we're running. So it's worth it. It's worth all the headache, it's worth all the you know, turn the computer off at two o'clock in the morning after already working, uh, you know, pulling 12, 13 hours during the day.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Yeah, it's worth it. It's worth it. It's worth it. Um I mean we don't have to read the entire list because again, 45 long, but um what get it's some of the notable, the notable notables on the list there.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

It's a lot of hand it over because if I don't call somebody's name off on there, uh I'm gonna hear about it, right? I'm gonna get a text from that brewery that's gonna say, Hey, you didn't name drop. Uh what's going on?

SPEAKER_01 21:54

So that's I I guess we can do this the slow read on this for real quick, or uh, or maybe a fan. Read, I don't know. Um, this is where I gotta get my reading glasses out here.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

I think I need I think I need readers. I just noticed like six months ago it's the worst.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Oh see much better uh food trucks, live music. Yeah, yeah, craft vendors, craft vendors, uh collaboration partners.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

Uh it's uh yeah, it's huge. There's tons of stuff going on. So if folks, even if they don't drink, again, it's it's a big uh beer and wine and cider mead cells or whatever mix. Um that's the kind of event it is, but if people don't drink, they would still be happy coming out, right? There's again, there's that music, there's collaboration partners. Uh we have tons of stuff going on.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Well, let me see what so you so 43, but it's now 45.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

It's now 45. Yeah, I'm playing phone tag with two that told me, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're in on Saturday, 100% count us in. I didn't throw their logo up on there yet. Okay. That's a car 45. That's all right. Do you know who those two are? Yeah, it's uh Sweezy and then Springbrook. Uh out in uh near Adirondacks. So really, yeah, and I I do love uh Sweezy's Krupnik. So hopefully they don't let me down because I just name dropped, right? I'm gonna have to say button.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

You know, I do we just we just did the New York State uh beer festival in Rochester. Um so that that used to be run by uh Rotterbach, so now it's run by the state, and then um it took uh there was three different breweries from the Adirondacks, and they had reps that were uh that were on site. Um but we have here we've got Whalen, we've got Arrow Spring Winery, we've got other half, uh let's see Honeymoon Trail Winery that's up on the Niagara Trail, right? Yeah, uh Community Beer Works, The Ridge, Mystic Hills, Southern Tier, Pearl Street, Myers Creek. They're out uh out there southeast of Syracuse. And let's see, Bee Spit Meetery, Elliottville Brewing Company, Tree Hugger Hard Cider. I love that guy. He's he's in a lot of places. Uh Shuffle City, um that's a brand next one. That's the one in Lockport that's getting ready to open up. About six weeks, I'm totally. I gotta get a hold of uh, yeah, I know they're uh one of their marketing people there. I gotta have a little chance gap there. Um see, Southern Tier Distilling and Blackbird, the winery at Marjam Manor, careful they're haunted. Uh Brewery Arden, Beer Tree, Becker Farms, 21 bricks. If you've never been down in the Brockton-Sheridan area, they're down the 90. Great winery down there. New Trail, always uh always great stuff. Uh 13 Monkeys. Uh Jason's been all over Western New York for as long as I can remember. Let's see. Big Ditch. Then we have uh Old Old Scotland Road Distillery. I think I've talked to him before. New York Beer Project, Smolder Society, Black Willow Winery, uh Eli Fish Brewing. Without a doubt, they'll bring something because they're always experimenting with something out there.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Last year they had it was uh had a cat on the can. It was like Lil Pump's adventure through Pumpkin Land or something. Yeah. And I'm like, this is the craziest thing ever. And I was like, I mean, your marketing's kind of like wild. I love it, right? I'm a sucker for marketing, doing marketing, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Go go figure. I always imagine him with a notebook by the bed, and he just wakes up in the middle of the day, I got a good idea, I got a good idea, write it down.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

And uh because last year we're at the event, it was like, oh, I can't, you know, I don't want to be drinking lots, and and at the end he was like, Oh, here's a couple uh cans.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

I was like, Oh, you are the best. Very nice. Victorian Borg, which uh was right up there on 104. Uh see Four Kings Distilling, Resurgence Brewing, uh Hartman's Local Hollow Brewing, which is uh just rebranded off of um Shalubi Loover. That's uh That's an ice whiskey.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

That's uh ice whiskey, that's a new one.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Yeah, ice whiskey, and I don't know what this one is next to it. Something goat here.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Oh, sassy goat winery. Sassy goat. Where's that located? Uh it I it's out in Niagara County. Okay. Uh exactly where I couldn't tell you. I was driving by, coming from uh Victorianburg, and uh I saw the sign and I pulled over because I didn't have him on my list. And I ran out there, whatever. There was a guy standing out there, and I said, Hey, you're a winery? And he said, Yeah, and I said, I don't have you on my list, you know. And I started BSing with them and told them about the first time I've ever heard of them. And literally uh they said, Yeah, cool, we're in. So email back and forth, and it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

All right. Uh Buffalo Old, and we got Finn Man, Hamburg, uh, let's see, Woodbury Wine uh Vineyards, Flying Bison, and then uh Butera Village Brew House, and then I have on one on here that's marked as Mystery Brewer.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

Uh yeah, they were being uh they're being secretive on who it is. Everybody's had that beer, everybody loves that beer. Uh I don't know if I can uh draw their name, but uh I I think it's pretty good. I wouldn't. It's good. I know I just had some camping uh two weekends ago. I had a couple.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Uh because again, it goes back to a $40 tasting ticket per person, ten dollars for designated driver. You can buy them pre-sale, and then uh would you will you have them as walk-up at the table or yeah, we'll have them walk up.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

I don't want to turn anybody away, right? Uh pre-sale is important. You get in a little bit faster and can go taste faster, yeah, right? Uh which is a great thing. Uh but folks can show up today of, you know, if we have a line out there with 500, 600 people in it, okay, so be it. You know, we're doing good on our pre-sale tickets. Uh obviously, we want folks to pre-sale and jump in just again for the ease of coming in, getting your tasting glass, yeah, going out in the woods, uh walking around, having a good time. Uh we're starting uh people on both sides of the trail, which is important. Um, so a lot of different stuff going on. But yeah, if they if they show up day off and it's a last minute, hey, I don't know what to do, or I didn't know about it, you know, pull that trigger, go for it. It's it's well worth it.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

All right. And uh, you know, uh Tom, you have anything else that you wanted to?

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Uh just want to do a quick shout-out, Bill's Mafia Babes. Uh they're they're coming through for us too. They uh did a volunteer sign-up. Um so they're sending somewhere around 15 volunteers uh right now to help with registration, the designated driver NA table, um, the merch table. Um again, they if if you guys don't know what the Bills Mafia Babes do, um ton of charitable work in the area. Um can't thank Kristen and her crew enough for all they do to help out with these things.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

I've I've had so many conversations with them. They're they're wonderful in everything that they do and you know, talking about pure love for Western New York and everything. Absolutely, you know, and it just happens to have a little bit of a Buffalo Bills base. And sorry, Houston, for your luck.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

So yeah, and all those collaborative groups that are helping us out with this, that that just keep growing the event. Yeah, you know, like Tom helped out with Bills Mafia Babes, that's awesome. We have uh Buffalo Jills alumni, they're helping out as well. Uh Queen City uh roller derby, they're gonna be helping us with the 50-50. Another great group. Tons of tons of really cool groups that are, you know what, and again, when you tell them what you're doing, but why you're doing it, right? They're like, absolutely, there we go. You know, we'll find some folks to help.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

I love that. I love that. Um, you know, Luca, as we're uh you know, wrapping up here, where can people buy tickets? What's your website and how they can how they can get connected?

SPEAKER_02 29:12

Arkeeriecounty.org forward slash ale trail. Okay. Super easy. Um again, uh if they want, they can see our stuff all over social media. We're putting it up there on uh Facebook and Instagram and uh also on our website and all of the different breweries are listed there, they can see photos of what happened last year. I mean, photos are great, you know, they don't do the same justice of uh people being there. Um but I guarantee if if you ask somebody that has been to Ale Trail in the past, they'll say yeah. 100% it's a great event. Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

In the meantime, too, if anybody wants to enter to win a pair of tickets, uh can go over to Western Beer Trail's our Facebook page, uh WNY Beer Trail. Uh we're doing a giveaway, the usual like, share, and uh follow us. So, but we're gonna give in away a pair of tickets. We'll draw that this Friday. Um so that'd be a chance to win a pair of tickets.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Get in on that as well. Gentlemen, thank you so much for for having me. This is uh this is great. Uh I mean I uh I've learned so much in just uh what a half an hour's time. That was pretty quick. Yeah. Uh it always goes so fast. You know, then you feel like that there's so much more you can add, or you could just like sit back and just you know chew the fat about things. But it's uh but maybe that's an opportunity if um uh you know, like you said, doors locked, so if we we're out we're not back in. So we're not gonna be able to wander tonight, but that's okay. That just means we can wander next Thursday. Uh thank you very much to the both of you for uh for having me and the opportunity to sit down and talk about this. So the uh one more time. So the uh the Arc, Erie County, New York, Ale Trail, and more. Thursday, September 24th, it's 4 30 to 9 p.m. And it's gonna be right here, uh 30 Wilson Road. I we didn't say that before, so it's important. I got that in now in Williamsville. If you're coming up whirly, right behind the old Ingram micro building, um, and tons of ample parking around here, so that won't be a problem. And then uh $40 for the tasting ticket, $10 designated driver ticket. Uh go online, get them, get them early, so you get right in the door or in the trail, as the case may be, and then just an incredible list of local businesses that are going to be representing.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Appreciate you having us on.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Yeah, thanks very much, gentlemen.