This story is a few months old… but I kept it in my back pocket for a month when I didn’t have much else to write about.
On some random weekend that I was boating up at Wausau this summer, I was listening to Ashley (operations manager for Wausau Whitewater) talk about all the local restaurants that contribute to the Whitewater Park. I was kind of shocked to hear that the local brewery wasn’t one of them and I asked why. She explained that once upon a time they did… but for whatever reason, they no longer do.
I was disappointed, because I always make a point of going there when I’m in town to paddle… and I’m usually there with a crew of 10 or more people. But after some serious thought, I realized: how do they even know boaters love that place? We usually leave our boats at the campsite, and aside from the occasional kayak tshirt or two, we look like any of the locals.
On my next trip I decided to make a point of our existence. We had our boats on our roof racks, wrote a little note of “Support Wausau Whitewater!” on the bottom each of our checks (with a generous tip -of course) and chatted up a bit with the staff.
To make the point go even farther I snapped a few pictures, and sent an email over to the manager of the brewery:
To the Manager/Owner of Redeye,
I was at your restaurant last saturday with 12 of my kayaking friends from chicago.
The food was great, the beer was tasty as always, and the service was awesome (especially for a busy saturday night).
Your hostess is cute… and very friendly… she deserves a big raise 
The ONLY thing I don’t like about your restaurant is the fact you guys don’t sponsor the whitewater park. Its the whitewater that brings me and my dozen friends up from chicago several times a year, and EVERY time we are in town, we stop at the red eye for beer and pizza and more beer. There are other local restaurants that sponsor the whitewater park, so we wish you would too.
I’m not an expert in the funding of the park, but I know they had to raise the fees for kayakers this year. And thats fine, I’m happy to pay my part… but I know the park relies heavily on local contributions to make the whitewater park the success that it is to draw people like me up there several weekends a year.
Thanks,
Bob – Chicago kayaker & Beer enthusiast
I’m happy to report that I got a pretty positive response from the brewery:
Hi Bob,
Thank you for the great compliments regarding the Red Eye, and thank you for your patronage. As you know, the whitewater park is a great asset to the Wausau community. While I am not familiar with sponsorship agreements with other local restaurants, I do know that the Red Eye would be interested in sitting down to further explore some options that would work for WACKO, the kayakers, and Red Eye.
Thanks again for the comments, a hopefully we’ll see you again soon.
Kevin Eichelberger
Red Eye Brewing Company
Wausau, WI
Whether or not anything comes of my email is still yet to be known. Wausau Whitewater is in the middle of putting together all of their sponsorships for next year. It would be pretty cool if Red Eye Brewing company became one of them and to know that I helped out with that by simply drinking a bunch of delicious beer and shooting a tiny email.
Cheers,
Bob
