Rotary Club of Shepherdstown volunteer Scott Smith serves up some beer, at the fourth annual Shepherdstown Beer & Food Fest in Morgan’s Grove Park on Saturday. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — The fourth annual Shepherdstown Beer & Food Fest once again raised a substantial amount of funds for youth in the Eastern Panhandle.

The festival, which was held at Morgan’s Grove Park on Saturday night, was organized by the Rotary Club of Shepherdstown’s Youth Services Committee.

“A lot of people and businesses come together, to support the youth in our community through this event,” said Youth Services Committee Chair Stacy McFarland.

This year, Shepherdstown Beer & Food Fest featured a new layout, with an elegant tent set up beside the park pavilion, enabling attendees to easily mingle together; listen to the live music of Washington, D.C.-based ’80s cover band The Reflex in the pavilion; pile their plates with pulled pork, smoked wings, collard greens and potato salad from HG’S Bar-B-Que and Soul Food Catering; and fill their cups with a variety of drinks, donated by Jefferson Distributing, Potomac Ridge Brewing and Norse Hall. A number of activities, including yard games and caricature drawing by Maria the Caricaturist, could be enjoyed by attendees, as well.

“It’s a lot of fun,” McFarland said. “People love to come to the festival, because they know it promises attendees good food and a fun time, while being for a good cause.”

Shepherdstown Beer & Food Fest attendees wait in line to fill their plates full of sweet treats, at Morgan’s Grove Park on Saturday. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

Former Rotary Club of Shepherdstown president Sean Murtagh agreed with her.

“It’s good way to help support the community,” Murtagh said.

Murtagh, who is the district governor-elect of Rotary District 7360, said the festival does an excellent job of funding the numerous youth-related projects the Rotary Club of Shepherdstown undertakes every year. All of the festival proceeds go toward running those projects.

“The Shepherdstown Beer & Food Fest has been a good way to help support the growing amount of need that affects the youth in our community. The youth are our future, so we need to encourage them and give them the tools to succeed,” Murtagh said. “This club has been around for 37 years. Over all that time, caring for the needs of the youth in our area has been something we have prioritized and remained passionate about.”

According to McFarland, the Youth Service Committee is involved in a number of projects throughout the Eastern Panhandle, including: its backpack project, providing much-needed school supplies and new backpacks to incoming students in need at Title 1 schools North Jefferson Elementary, T.A. Lowery Elementary, Shepherdstown Day Care Center, Blue Ridge Elementary and Ranson Elementary; the “Candy Cane Express” Christmas toy drive at T.A. Lowery Elementary; the winter coat drive at T.A. Lowery Elementary and North Jefferson Elementary; the World Affairs Seminar, which the club organizes with the Rotary Club of Martinsburg; the Shepherd University Medlife program, which sends students to provide medical help in third world countries; the Rotary Youth Exchange, allowing local and international youth to switch places for a year; and its two-county-wide literacy initiative.

The Reflex performs cover songs from the 1980s, at the fourth annual Shepherdstown Beer & Food Fest in Morgan’s Grove Park on Saturday. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

“We make sure that every second grader in Berkeley and Jefferson counties have books. Together with the other Rotary Clubs in the area, we provide each student with a stack of books,” McFarland said, noting that having books of their own encourages children to read more for their own enjoyment. “We also hand out books to trick-or-treaters at our booth in downtown Shepherdstown, on Halloween night.”

Community members enjoy food from HG’S Bar-B-Que and Soul Food Catering at the beginning of the Shepherdstown Beer & Food Fest on Saturday night. Photo by Tabitha Johnston