No-Li Brewhouse to host fundraiser for vandalized Salish School of Spokane - May 18

Thursday, May 18, 2017

(as reported in The Spokesman-Review by  Chad Sokol)

No-Li, the Spokane area’s largest brewery, is hosting a fund-raiser Thursday evening to pay for a new security system at the Salish School of Spokane, which was vandalized earlier this month.

Thirty-two local breweries have paired up to create 16 special beers for the occasion, which runs from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at No-Li Brewhouse, 1003 E. Trent Ave.

No-Li owner John Bryant billed the fundraiser as “probably the largest collaboration brewing event in the Inland Northwest, ever.”

Bryant said he became distraught after reading a newspaper story about the vandalism at the Salish School. The culprits broke into the school on North Maple Street and scrawled racial slurs on the walls on the night of May 4.

“It was awful, disgusting, and no one was doing anything about it,” he said. “No school, no children deserve to have that done to them.”

So that afternoon he reached out to LaRae Wiley, executive director of the Salish School, and offered to help.

“They’re just good-hearted people,” Wiley said. “They just stepped up and called us and said, ‘We want to do a fundraiser.’”

The Native American immersion school offers child care programs and classes in the Salish language to 70 children ages 1 to 11.

Wiley expects it will cost more than $3,000 to outfit the school with security cameras and a monitoring system. The school previously applied for a government grant to pay for that system but was denied, she said.

“We’re going to pay whatever it takes to put the security system in,” Bryant said.

The fundraiser costs $10 and includes five 4-ounce pours. Bryant said the beer lineup will include a wide variety of flavors and styles. The special brews will be available during the fundraiser only.

“The power of this event is bringing people together,” he said. “I love to involve the community so everyone feels like they’re part of the solution.”