Eat, drink and be merry, and all for a good cause.

The Roaring Forks Corks and Kegs benefit is putting on its third annual event to benefit local teachers by getting people out to enjoy some good local food and drinks.

The event is hosted by Bay Equity Home Loans and is slated for 6-9 p.m. May 12. It features 33 vendors, some music and an auction at the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs to help local teachers excel more with their students. 

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“The point was to reward individual teachers that really wanted to do cool things outside their current curriculum, or in addition to their current curriculums,” said Jeremy Joslin, senior loan officer for Equity Bay Home Loans. 

They raise the money through their foundation called the Glenwood Education Foundation, to give back to teachers for classroom projects, said Michael Picore, area sales manager for Bay Equity Home Loans. 

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Although corporate sponsors are the biggest piece of the puzzle that raise the majority of the funds, the ticket sales to the event raise a significant amount from the community. 

Once they raise the money, teachers are invited to fill out an application for supplies they want for their classroom, and the foundation rewards as many teachers as they can. 

Picore and Joslin said that the funds have gone to everything from headphones that translate language, to 3D printers, to a project where a teacher had the class raise trout to later release into the Colorado River. 

Projects can also be for the overall school, like a wheelchair swing.

Vendors for the event will include all of the Glenwood Springs breweries, vineyards from Palisade and many of the local restaurants. They will hand out small-sized treats and samples, much like at Taste of Basalt, and after the event, they will encourage people to go enjoy the local downtown area. 

The event is capped at 800 people and will sell out quickly, so buy tickets sooner than later, if you want to go. 

“The community has been amazing and the support from the corporate donors, the restaurants, the distributors, the vineyards and breweries,” Picore said. “Everybody has come out to support the teachers.” 

Picore and Joslin said they were both raised by teachers and grew up seeing the struggle those teachers go through to provide a good education to their students. After seeing how hard the teachers would work for fundraisers, they thought there was more they could do.

They took their strong community connections to create an event where the community was present and having fun just for the local teachers. 

“This has been a community-founded event where we’ve been able to do a lot of good for a lot of teachers who are doing good by our kids,” Picore said. “The more we can help with education in and around Glenwood Springs, and help these teachers get what they need for that education; it’s investing in our kids and that future.”

They have already raised $107,000 from corporate sponsorships, and their goal is to get to $150,000. They said they raised more than $165,000 last year and $110,000 their first year.