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Bartender of the Year Program Selects Health & Wellness Craft Meets Community Winner

Bartender of the Year Program Selects Health & Wellness Craft Meets Community Winner

Mara Bethel of Atlanta was announced as the health & wellness winner of the Craft Meets Community Initiative (CMCI) $5,000 award to support a community-based project aimed at creating safe work environments. Mara will also receive one-on-one mentoring sessions with track leaders Alex Jump and Lauren Paylor, co-founders of Focus on Health.

 

Mara, whose hospitality career spans more than a decade, is also a certified Mental Health First Aid Provider focused on strengthening mental health support networks in the hospitality industry through the lens of mutual aid. Inspired by her work in this area, Mara submitted a proposal to train more service industry workers in providing community-based care to create safe work environments in hospitality. Mental Health First Aid courses provide tools for early intervention, de-escalation, and support for mental health/substance challenges and crises. Through the support of the CMCI award, Bethel and one other service worker can be certified instructors, with the remainder going towards launching and expanding the program around Atlanta.

“A critical component of this training is creating safer environments that are tailored to personal needs. It is a person-forward approach with the knowledge that everyone has unique experiences and needs. Accordingly, everyone’s wellness plan is unique,” said Bethel. “Within hospitality, I see a need for advocacy that is person-focused first and foremost. We’re building strong communities in hospitality with strong networks of support!”

 

The Health and Wellness track is focused on the crisis within the hospitality industry of taking care of others before yourself. Jump and Paylor led a seminar entitled “Self-Service: Hospitality and Your Wellbeing,” which detailed best practices for addressing issues and steps of implementation surrounding five pillars of wellness: mental, physical, social, environmental, & financial. You can view this seminar here. Sponsored by Deep Eddy Vodka and Dubonnet Rouge, Mara created a lower ABV cocktail that can be enjoyed as a decompression time later in the evening, the Garnet Sour. Her take on this was inspired by treating yourself to something enjoyable everyday (see recipe at end of article).

 

“Mara’s project stood out to us primarily due to her attention to detail and her clear vision of the bigger picture,” said Jump and Paylor. “She was detail oriented in presenting a solution and had a clear direction for the project as a whole. Lastly, her proposal was one that felt feasible for both a local community as well as a larger scale project.”

 

More than 176 hospitality community members registered to participate in the health and wellness track. Mara was ultimately identified as the award recipient for this track based on her desire to expand Mental Health First Aid within her community. Mara will now be supported by the CMCI award money and one-on-one mentorship opportunities with Jump and Paylor to grow her initiative.

 

Garnet Sour

  • 1.25 oz Dubonnet Rouge
  • .75 oz Lemon Juice
  • .5 oz Pear Eau-de-Vie
  • .5 oz Red Amaro
  • .25 oz Fig Leaf Syrup
  • 12 Sprays of Absinthe (in atomizer or absinthe rinse)
  • Star Anise

Instructions:

 

Add lemon juice, fig leaf syrup (recipe below), pear eau-de-vie, red amaro, and Dubonnet Rouge into a mixing tin. Add ice and shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Double strain through fine mesh strainer into a chilled coupe that has been rinsed/sprayed 6 times with absinthe. Top with 6 more sprays of absinthe and 1 whole star anise. Sip and take a minute for yourself.