United Way of Greater Nashua’s pub crawl is a night of fun for a good cause
The idea is pretty simple, at least in the beginning of the night.
Walk into a pub, drink a beer and get a playing card. Then move on to another pub and do the same thing all over again. After five pubs, five beers (or other beverage) and five playing cards, you will have a poker hand. When you and your fellow pub-crawlers have reached the final bar, you will compare poker hands. The crawler with the highest hand will win fabulous prizes.
The United Way of Greater Nashua (unitedwaynashua.org) is holding just such a Poker Pub Crawl, Saturday, Sept. 7, from 4 to 8 p.m. It is the brainchild of Samantha Cassista, the United Way’s Director of Corporate Partnerships. She is emphatic that nobody is under any obligation to drink five or more beers, or anything alcoholic at all, for that matter, to participate.
“You don’t have to purchase an alcoholic beverage,” she said. “You can do non-alcoholic the entire time.”
The United Way of Greater Manchester has a reputation for holding creative fundraisers, but this is the first time it has organized this particular event. Cassista said one of the most challenging aspects of pulling it together was finding enough bars on Main Street in Nashua that were within walking distance of each other and were willing to participate.
“It was not easy to get five bars to say yes to doing this,” she said. “Some of them said yes so quickly I was floored. Others gave me the silent treatment, and a few were flat-out ‘heck no.’ It was a long process to be able to find the five who were excited about it. So we’re very, very excited to show off these nice community partners and we appreciate them being able to support us by opening their doors and taking on something that might seem a little risky to others.”
Participants will start out at Kettlehead on Main (97 Main St.), where they will get their first playing card, and be broken into three groups.
“Our goal is to have about 100 people,” Cassista said. “The three groups will cycle between three different bars so as to not overwhelm the bars too much and allow for more bars to be able to participate. They don’t all have to have a 100-person capacity.”
Each group will be assigned a “captain” who will keep everyone organized and make sure they have a good time. Cassista said the captains will wear captains’ hats and will take photos of people throughout the evening.
“We’re going to have a Social Media Prize given to one of the three groups,” she said. “It’s like bartender’s choice, and to the group the bars think is the nicest group. It’s kind of a version of a Miss Congeniality Award.”
After starting at Kettlehead on Main, the groups will circulate between Penuche’s Ale House (4 Canal St.), Fody’s Tavern (9 Clinton St.) and Margaritas (1 Nashua Drive) before meeting at the final stop at Odd Fellows Brewing (124 Main St.). Participants will have to buy their own drinks at each stop, but all the participating bars will have special prices for them. “So we are supporting the local restaurants,” Cassista said, “but our people are getting special deals.”
Once everyone is together again, the pub-crawlers will compare their poker hands and the participant with the highest hand will win $150, while the other people will be entered in raffles to spread the luck around.
Cassista said events like this are a good way to introduce the charity to younger people who might not be familiar with it.
“A lot of people understand the United Way as sort of a name,” she said. “There’s a name recognition, but they don’t really know much about us. That’s OK, but this will help them to get a little more in touch with United Way, OK, so they do fundraising. I wonder why they do fundraising’. And hopefully that will bring on the next question.”
The Poker Hand Pub Crawl
Saturday, Sept. 7, from 4 to 8 p.m., starting at Kettlehead on Main Nashua (97 Main St.)
Participants can register online through the United Way’s event page. The $25 registration fee includes entry to the event, a map of participating venues, and a chance to win the grand cash prize and many raffle prizes. Proceeds go to support United Way of Greater Nashua.
