KALISPELL - There’s no better way to spend a chilly weekend in Kalispell than enjoying a brewfest and watching hockey to support a good cause.
The Annual Craft Brewers Cup is a fundraiser for youth hockey through the Flathead Valley Hockey Association.
“The cool thing about this tournament — people aren’t on teams. It's actually a draft league. So people will be on different teams in the fall, the winter, the spring in the summer," explained hockey player Shawn Baker.
"And then for tournaments, people just kind of pull together groups of their buddies and put together a team for the tournament," Baker continued. "?People you wanted to play with for a while play together once a year and it's super fun."
The rink is usually full of smaller hockey players but the adults were playing in a tournament to help raise funds. But the kids say they're still excited to be hanging out around the rink.
“I just like them to play for a long time so I can be here,” said Mites team hockey player Linnaeus Cohen.
This is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Flathead Flames with all the money going towards purchasing gear for the youth teams.
“It's a big machine. it takes a lot of volunteers to run this. My wife and I did it for 11 years and I’m really glad for the time we put it in here and we're grateful for the people that are still volunteering to make sure that kids like this are still playing hockey,” said Baker.
“The best thing about playing hockey is that it happens so fast that you forget about everything else that's going on. And it's kind of an escape and it's just you and a little black puck and the other team and your teammates and you're hanging out and camaraderie is awesome," Baker concluded.
