Rotary Club of Shepherdstown members, from left, Darlene Truman, Jim King and Brian Truman, man the beer station at the Beer & Food Fest on Saturday. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — The third annual Beer & Food Fest was held at Morgan’s Grove Park on Saturday afternoon and evening.

According to organizer and Youth Services Committee Chair Stacy McFarland, the event has become one of the Rotary Club of Shepherdstown’s biggest fundraisers. The proceeds from each year’s festival are designated for youth organizations and youth-related initiatives, such as the Back to School Backpack Program, the Dreamdesk Project, Jefferson County NAACP’s Youth Block Party, the Jefferson High School Show Choir, the Eastern Panhandle Composite Youth Mountain Bike Team, the Shepherd University Rotaract club, T.A. Lowry Elementary School’s Candy Cane Express, North Jefferson Elementary School’s coat drive, the Jefferson High School Interact club’s annual Socktober donation drive, Morgan’s Grove Park, the Rotary Youth Leadership Academy, the Rotary Youth Exchange program and Shepherd University’s MEDLIFE Movement chapter.

“We’re helping all over the place!” McFarland said. “The Jefferson High School Show Choir costs like $450 for the costumes and all that kind of stuff, making it too expensive for some students to join. So this year, we sponsored one student who couldn’t afford to do that. Last year, we gave the show choir funding for a reusable backdrop that can be reused for the stage — they would always buy disposable backdrops in the past, which would rack up the cost of their shows. So we helped them out with that problem!”

After last year’s fundraiser, the Rotary Club of Shepherdstown had raised $14,000 for its youth-related charitable work. This year, McFarland said they were on track to surpass that number.

“Right now we’re netting around $15,000, heading into today. On-site ticket sales are above that,” McFarland said, mentioning 200 tickets had been purchased in advance of the festival.

Shepherdstown residents Jen Wabnitz, left, and Rebecca Kandalis chat and drink together at the Beer & Food Fest on Saturday. Tabitha Johnston

According to McFarland, the growth of the Beer & Food Fest is largely thanks to the service-mindedness of her club and the local community.

“We have more than 100 people in the Rotary Club of Shepherdstown,” McFarland said. “A huge portion of them have come out and have helped in one way or another, so it really is a full Rotary event to make this a success!”

Fourteen local businesses sponsored the festival, including Jefferson Security Bank, River Riders, Jefferson Rentals, United Bank, Westvirjeni, The Lopez Team, the Nora Roberts Foundation, WVU Medicine, Keys Valuation, Grapes & Grains, West Virginia American Water, Summit Community Bank, Jefferson Distributing and Lowe Real Estate Group.

An additional, anonymous donation was made for this year’s festival, to bring Washington, D.C.-based band The Reflex to perform on a stage in a VIP tent set up a few yards away from the park’s pavilion.

“It’s the community that makes it possible! All of our sponsors have really helped us to underwrite this, to cover the cost, which has increased the amount that we are able to give back to the community,” McFarland said. “There are so many great things about it — it benefits the youth, it’s a great time, it has good barbecue from HG’S Bar-B-Que and Soul Food Catering, it has a number of good drink options and it includes some fun music on a beautiful afternoon!”

A couple, with cups of beer in hand, play corn hole together at the Beer & Food Fest on Saturday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

A couple of the youth who had benefitted from the Rotary Club of Shepherdstown’s charitable giving, could be found helping out at the ticketing and photo booth areas at the festival this year.

“Over the past two summers, I’ve gone to Lima, Peru with MEDLIFE. Next summer, we’re hoping to go to Costa Rica,” said Shepherd University junior nursing major Victoria Ames. “It has opened my eyes to how much we take for granted and the opportunities that we have in America, that not everybody else has.”

Ames noted that the medical service trips have given her a wide variety of practical experiences that she might not have otherwise received during her time in college.

“It allows me to learn medical knowledge that I wouldn’t necessarily be able to gain in the U.S. You can work with a patient in a clinic, such as in OB/GYN or in dentistry, that you aren’t specializing in. You can’t necessarily do that in America,” Ames said. “You also get to learn a little bit of Spanish in that environment, which I think is really great with helping you to communicate better with patients, both there and in the U.S.”

The Reflex performs "Tainted Love" on the VIP tent's stage at the Beer & Food Fest on Saturday. Tabitha Johnston