BUCKHANNON, W.Va. (WV News) — The Buckhannon-Upshur Chamber of Commerce held an early West Virginia Day celebration with their second annual Bartender Battle at the Opera House.
Chamber Director Tammy Reger said there was a lot of excitement surrounding the event.
"We're really excited," she said. "There are eight bartenders who are local leaders and they are very competitive this year. We did this for the first time last year and it was a huge success. Everybody had a great time."
Trish Collet, CEO of Community Care of West Virginia, and Dr. James Moore, President of West Virginia Wesleyan College, were two of the bartenders for Thursday's battle. They both shared their enthusiasm for the event and helping the chamber.
"I feel great about this," Collet said. "I think it's a wonderful cause to help support our community and this is a wonderful way to get people together."
"This goes to such a great cause," Moore said. "It's worth raising money for the chamber because the chamber is really a space where we all come together often to solve problems and find opportunities. They're really great facilitators."
Reger said this year's battle was more popular than the last.
"We've actually sold more tickets this year than we did last year," she said. "As long as we keep growing like that, things will be good."
Reger said the idea to hold the Bartender Battle originated from residents wanting the chamber to hold more fun events.
"We do a lot of business events throughout the year but this event is different because it's just for fun," she said. "For a lot of years we had people asking what we planned to do for West Virginia Day and we really didn't have a lot of activities going on so we decided to have this one."
For the organizers and the local leaders, the bartender battle is something they hope can continue to grow as it brings in people from all over town.
"I think anything that gets the community out and together is important," Moore said. "Even in a small town like Buckhannon, we all get really busy and we get focused on our own organizations. So as much as we try to help each other, take care of each other and be around each other, it's sometimes easy to just stay in your lane.
"An event like this that has a fun theme and brings community leaders together in a fun, competitive way to raise some money is a good show that brings people out," Moore said.
"It brings the business community together with the residents and it's open to anybody, not just chamber members," Reger said. "We include things like a big birthday cake for West Virginia, a dinner and a photo booth for everyone."
"It's great because it brings different members of our community from different businesses to interact on a personal level and just get that social interaction that builds our communities," Collet said.