During a year in which small businesses everywhere are struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic, Kelly Brandeberry, co-owner of Brandeberry Winery, said her business has been strong, and she was looking to give back.
“If you have the ability to help someone else and bring a smile to someone else’s face right now, why wouldn’t you?” Brandeberry said. “You know, the wine business has not suffered. I mean, we have suffered in the fact that we’ve had to completely change our business (model) around, (but) we’re very good at morphing to whatever we need to do.”
So leveraging its relatively strong position during the pandemic, the winery so far has been able to provide three cases of wine to health-care workers, Brandeberry said. The winery co-owner said she would continue the giveaways as long as people are interested in purchasing wine to donate to health-care workers. State alcohol laws prohibit a winery from donating wines directly to individuals, Brandeberry said.
Thanks to all the healthcare workers who came out and got a bottle of donated wine. It was our pleasure to bring a smile...
Posted by Brandeberry Winery on Saturday, November 28, 2020
After posting to Facebook that the three cases were available as a thank-you, about 20 health care workers lined-up at the winery the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
“I was like ‘I have 14 bottles left (and) on Saturday when we reopen from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., bring your ID and the first 14 people that show up will get a bottle.’ It worked out really perfect. When I first got there at 3 p.m., there was a line.”
No health-care workers who came were turned down.
“I mean even through the masks, you could tell they were smiling, they were happy. … You know, when you’ve got so many people out there fighting, wearing the masks (and) they’re paying the price because they have to see more and more sick people — it’s just nice to give back to them. It kind of made their holiday a little bit more special, hopefully.”
Brandeberry Winery has been committed to local charity well before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On top of co-owning a winery, Brandeberry has owned a dog-training business for 20 years and is currently on the board of the Clark County SPCA. Raising money for local animal shelters has been ingrained in the winery’s philanthropic mission.
The winery has also raised money for Honor Flight, an organization that transports veterans to Washington D.C. to visit the memorials dedicated to honoring those who served our country.
“To me, whatever is going on at the time that I feel like needs help, that’s what I tend to,” Brandeberry said. “This day and age, I think there’s nothing more important than our health-care workers, so that’s why I decided I was going to do something to try and bring happiness to them.”
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