Bartender of the Year 2021 Comes to a Close with Virtual Celebration
On Wednesday Heaven Hill hosted a virtual celebration for our 2021 Craft Meets Community Initiative (CMCI) winners and mentors to close out what has been a very unique Bartender of the Year. Though we would have loved to celebrate in person, we opted for a virtual event to keep everyone safe. Our winners Cole Youngner, Jake Truong-Jones, and Mara Bethel and our CMCI mentors Claire Sprouse, Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Joaquin Simo, Jackie Summers, Alex Jump, and Lauren Paylor were invited to celebrate and network together safely.
Though the program looked different from past years, Heaven Hill is proud to still have the opportunity to support the hospitality community through Bartender of the Year. CMCI was developed to provide greater access industry-wide to education, mentorship, and leadership engagement opportunities. This year CMCI offered four educational tracks focused on topics that have a strong impact on the bartending community today.
These tracks included Education, Mentorship & Development, Health & Wellness, Environmental Impact and Sustainability, and Diversity, Equality and Serving the Underserved.
The program allowed us to support each of the three winners through a $5,000 award and mentorship opportunities while providing education to many more through virtual seminars and workshops. The virtual sessions resulted in excellent engagement with track leaders, creating greater dialog around these important topics within the hospitality industry and beyond. If you missed any of the seminars or would like to revisit them, you can view them here.
During the call, Jake, Mara, and Cole had the opportunity to further discuss their individual projects and how they may support one another in these efforts. Through this process they discovered that their projects complement each other well and by working together they may be able to make an even bigger impact.
“I think what [Cole and Mara] are doing coincides with what I’m trying to do with my non-profit, both in the visibility [Cole is bringing], and the content [Mara is teaching].” – Jake Truong-Jones
“[I’m thankful to Heaven Hill] for taking the time to bring us together. It feels really nice to just be able to connect with a bunch of different people in a bunch of different areas [of the industry]. It feels really important to have that connection.” – Mara Bethel
“The bartending community [has] one of the strongest senses of community that I’ve ever felt…Over the past year I felt like there needed to be a space where we can have conversations about how we can be better taken care of, and better take care of each other in a way that is more balanced and sustainable.” – Cole Youngner
“A lot of what [these CMCI winners] are saying and doing resonates with me as I move through this industry…[they] are all are really part of building what [the future of the industry] looks like so [I thank them for their work].” – Claire Sprouse, Sustainability and the Environment Mentor
We look forward to seeing what they are able to do both as individuals and together for the bartender community as a whole.
Overall, this was a very successful Bartender of the Year program. We look forward to continuing our support of the hospitality community for years to come.
