Boots and Bourbon Promises a Kick-Up-Your-Heels Night for Education

Boots, barbecue, bourbon, and a mechanical bull will come together at the Warren County Fairgrounds this Saturday, September 19, as the Rotary Club of Warren County hosts its fifth annual Boots and Bourbon fundraiser, this year benefiting the Warren County Educational Endowment.

The event begins at 6:30 p.m. in the 4-H Barn and will feature dinner, live music, dancing, an open bar, mechanical bull riding, a 50/50 drawing, and both live and silent auctions.

Tickets are $100 and can be purchased in advance at Jean’s Jewelers and Ellen Aders State Farm or online. Tickets will also be available at the door.

Katie Tennant, President of the Rotary Club of Warren County, said the event has grown into a popular annual gathering supported by the local community.

“This is the fifth annual,” Tennant said. “We have barbecue, we have Devin Smith, who a lot of people know. We’re going to have an open bar, we’re going to have bull riding, do the silent auction, the 50/50, the live auction.”

Proceeds from this year’s event will benefit the Warren County Educational Endowment, an organization that has been supporting programs for Warren County Public Schools for three decades.

Philip Vaught, representing the endowment, said the organization was established in 1996 and raises money primarily to provide grants for Warren County Public Schools employees.

“We were honored to be this year’s beneficiary,” Vaught said.

The organization is awarding $90,000 in grants this year and hopes eventually to reach the point where it can provide $100,000 annually.

Over the life of the endowment, more than $900,000 in grants have been awarded, Vaught said. The organization also recently reached another significant financial milestone.

“We just hit our $2 million corpus mark, which is a big deal for a small community endowment,” he said.

Those dollars have helped bring a wide range of educational projects into Warren County classrooms and schools.

One of Vaught’s favorite examples came from Blue Ridge Technical Center, where students from different trades worked together on an electric car project.

“They built an electric car,” Vaught said. “So you had students from different types of trades that were coming together, and they raced it down the street. It was really, really cool.”

Another grant supported a Trout in the Classroom project. Students learned how to raise trout and later released them into the Shenandoah River.

Other funding has supported schoolwide enrichment programs and smaller projects, including ServSafe programs and professional certifications.

Grant amounts can vary significantly by project. Vaught said the endowment has supported requests ranging from about $500 to $15,000.

That flexibility allows the organization to support both larger educational projects and smaller classroom or certification needs that can still directly affect students and school employees.

Saturday’s fundraiser will give community members an opportunity to support that work while enjoying an evening designed to be informal and fun.

A mechanical bull has become one of the event’s attractions, and Tennant said she plans to climb aboard again this year.

“It is not a live bull, she joked, adding that the operator generally gives riders a gentle start before increasing the challenge.

“I do it every year,” Tennant said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

The local Excel Band will provide live music, with dancing planned throughout the evening.

Food will also be central to the night, with barbecue on the menu.

The event’s presenting sponsor is Happy Creek Crossing, home of  Debbie’s Lighthouse. OnCue is also supporting the fundraiser by providing bartenders for the evening.

Despite bourbon getting top billing in the event’s name, Tennant said guests will have other choices.

“There will also be — it won’t just be bourbon,” she said. “We’ll have some wine, we’ll have some specialty drinks kind of made up for the evening.”

Soft drinks and plenty of water will also be available.

Organizers are putting an additional emphasis on getting guests home safely.

Five Star Executive Chauffeuring is offering free rides home to attendees who decide not to drive after drinking at the event.

“If you have a little bit too much fun and you want to be smart and safe, as you should, you can get with Scott Fink, and he’ll get you home safely,” Tennant said.

The evening will also include plenty of opportunities for guests to support the cause beyond the price of admission.

Live and silent auctions are planned, along with a 50/50 drawing. Those activities will help raise additional money for the educational endowment and its grant programs.

The partnership brings together several organizations with long histories of community involvement.

The Warren County Educational Endowment focuses its efforts directly on local schools, using money raised and invested over the years to support educational opportunities that might otherwise be difficult to fund.

For Vaught, the endowment’s growing financial base makes that support increasingly dependable.

Reaching $2 million in its corpus means the organization has built a significant foundation for future grantmaking while continuing to work toward its goal of distributing $100,000 each year.

The grants can make a difference in ways both large and small.

A major project may bring students from several technical programs together to build something they can see, test, and operate. A smaller grant might help provide a certification that gives a student or employee a practical skill.

Together, those projects reflect the endowment’s central mission of supporting employees and students within Warren County Public Schools.

This weekend, community members can help that mission while enjoying an evening of food, music and entertainment.

The fifth annual Boots and Bourbon fundraiser begins at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the 4-H Barn at the Warren County Fairgrounds.

Between the barbecue, dancing, auctions, and mechanical bull, organizers are hoping for another strong community turnout — with the money raised ultimately returning to Warren County classrooms.

Town Talk, sponsored by National Media Services, Inc., is a Royal Examiner series that introduces you to local entrepreneurs, business owners, nonprofit leaders, and public officials who help shape Warren County. Conversations cover a wide range of topics about our community and the people making a difference.