LEE COUNTY, Fla. – Crazy Dingo Brewing Company aims to give back after the community helps rebuild it.
While Hurricane Ian decimated areas on or near water, many inland areas were also hard hit by the storm. Including Crazy Dingo Brewery which is about two miles from Daniels Parkway in Fort Myers.
“The first thing that came to mind was man, we’ve been working all these years to bring this to the community and now it’s on,” said Dan Esperon, one of Crazy Dingo’s co-owners.
After assessing all the damage, Esperon says it was clear they needed help. So they started an online fundraiser.
“As soon as he posted that, we started pulling people to us, offering a cooler space, offering, you know, assistance in any way we could. Help clean up our area. He said.
Fort Myers Brewing Company and Palm City Brewing were two of the local breweries that reached out to lend a hand. Each took about 30 kegs to store in their coolers so Crazy Dingo wouldn’t lose inventory.
“They stepped in and helped, you know, we shared our barrels with them and they both welcomed us with open arms and helped us put everything together and set it up.” said Hope.
But it’s not just local breweries that have offered to help.
Esperon says their electricians dropped everything they were doing to make sure they could get back up and running.
“Marco Coleman and Eric Taben who really stepped in about (the) next day and dropped everything they were doing and were able to get us up and running, a little at least electrically, to the point where we can power our fermentation room and keep our beers at a constant temperature.
So now, just over a month after the hurricane made landfall, Crazy Dingo is looking to give back to the community that gave them so much.
“We just want to do everything we can and provide a safe and open environment for everyone, so if anybody wants to fundraise here in an open space, if they want to do fundraisers, s ‘he needs us to help in any way, shape or form, you know, we’re ready because it’s really changed us and completely opened our eyes to what this community in the southwest of the Florida, but also Florida as a whole, is poised to do so in terms of small business owners, farmers, and people in general.
The Crazy Dingo team has also partnered with other local and state breweries to launch a series of special beers, with proceeds going to organizations in Southwest Florida.
“All of these profits are going to benefit the community co-op here in Fort Myers, but we will be making more beers in the near future to support other local Fort Myers businesses as well as nonprofits that can help us distribute part of the profits. of the beer we brew,” Esperon said.
