The Importance of Having Fun (This Weekend): Beer Festival and Weaver’s Weekend
Second blog post of the day, 10:50 pm when I start it, I still have other work to do as well and a full day tomorrow starting at 6:30 am. However- I will not be hating myself when the alarm goes off.
Why? Because this is important.
I know I write about a lot of fun events and things to do and see and buy and eat and consume. But many times these funs events have a rather serious cause behind them. This weekend would be no exception.
The Macon Beer Festival supports Pints for Prostates, from their website ” Pints for Prostates is a grassroots campaign that uses the universal language of beer to reach men with an important health message. Founded by beer writer and prostate cancer survivor Rick Lyke in 2008, the campaign raises awareness among men about the importance of regular health screenings and early detection by making appearances at beer events, social networking and pro bono advertising.” And some statistics, also from the Pints for Prostates website: ” The fact is 1 in 6 men in the U.S. will face prostate cancer during their lifetimes, that is a rate that is 33% higher than the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer. Sadly, approximately 30,000 men die from the disease each year in this country and most of these deaths could have been prevented with early detection.”
That’s some rather sobering stuff. (No pun intended… well, maybe I did choose to go ahead and write it after I realized it would be a pun.) Men over the age of 40 will be offered a free screening as well.
After the Beer Festival will be the 6th annual Weaver’s Weekend, this year to be held at The Crazy Bull, and featuring The Futurebirds and Thomas Wynn and The Believers with special guest Savannah Alday. Aside from the really awesome music, which I have blogged about previously, this honors a young man who was my age. He and I actually had a class together, if I remember correctly. See, Westside and Central High School were huge rivals but college classes were offered by Macon State Professors on Westside’s campus and Central students could also take them. If I remember correctly, Mike was in my English class- even though he attended Central. I didn’t know him well, but I can remember everyone saying what a fantastic person he was.
You see, Mike was shot and killed by the friend of a fraternity brother. That person got mad. And he shot him.
I can remember hearing about it on the radio, just stunned that this was someone I kind of knew. It’ll never make sense. It shouldn’t make sense.
And so, Mike, who loved music now has a music festival to live on forever by- not just in our memories but through others as well. And please forgive me if I stumble through this, I find writing about death and honoring those who have passed away in the most senseless of ways to be a really difficult task.
I spoke with Stephen Adams, Mike’s friend, about this weekend. I wanted to know what makes this event unique, different from others. I really think he put it a hell of a lot better than I can:
“It’s not necessarily about being unique, but allowing something good to come out of bad. Mike’s life was ended way too soon, but in his short time here made a big enough impact on so many people that we are continuing to provide the things he loved. He loved good music, he loved good times with his friends and he loved giving back to his community. All of these things are realized through the Friends of Mike Weaver Foundation and Weaver’s Weekend.”
So, let’s have some really, important fun this weekend y’all – both of these events are for excellent causes.
If you wish to learn more about either of these organizations, please click the links that were provided in the article or go here:
