The Castillian Blog

Posts by members and friends of el Castillo, the NHP & NHPFC, the Black Hole Bayou, Belhaven (Wells 2nd Floor, The PIT, The PUB et al), the Triune, Deuce Saints, Blue Eyed Merle's Quasi Acoustic Lunch Box Band (and incarnations of Da Da), The Beggar Canyon Boys, The Pirate Song Singers, The Really Rottens, Team Pimp, Brains of the Universe, Pula Llama, the el Castillian Wrestling Federation, related assemblies, groupies, affiliates, fans and all who aspire to the Castillian Dream

Saturday, June 09, 2012

Local Boy Does Good in Big Apple

A write up in today's Clarion Ledger about Brian Floyd and his Barman's Fund: Miss. native's Barman's Fund serves charities Also, a feature on the drinks Floyd is serving up at the Vanderbilt: New York drinks get a twist of Mississippi UPDATE: Here is a link to the audio archive from when Brian Floyd was interviewed on Supertalk's Marshall Ramsey Show about the Barman's Fund.

Labels: Being Considerate, Libations and Cuisine, nyc

Posted by: Brian / 2:26 PM

(0) remarks

Friday, August 05, 2011

Wall Street Needs A Drink

Another article about Floyd's The Barman's Fund this time in today's Wall Street Journal:

NY HEARD & SCENE
AUGUST 5, 2011
Bartenders Serve Up Tips for Community Causes
By MELANIE GRAYCE WEST

For bartender Brian Floyd, a tip on a beer is more than just a thank you for good service. He takes his tips, pools them with contributions from other barkeeps and goes out to do good in the community.

Mr. Floyd, 35 years old, works at the Vanderbilt restaurant and bar in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, where he lives.

He is the founder and organizer of the Barman's Fund, a loose association of about 10 members who have agreed to contribute one shift's worth of tips each month to an informal, pooled philanthropic fund. The bartenders decide as a group how to donate the money.

"All of these people in my mind are just absolute champs," says Mr. Floyd of his band of do-gooder bartenders.

"If you asked somebody, 'Will you give me $300 every month?' people would say no," he says. "But that, in effect, is what these people are doing."

Tips pooled as part of the Barman's Fund have gone to help finance several projects totaling around $7,000. Money so far has gone to causes including a scholarship for a girl to attend music camp at the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, the purchase of a barbecue grill and patio furniture for the Park Slope Women's Shelter and the purchase of bulk food for the Greenpoint Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen.
Next on the to-do list is the funding of an antibiotics program for uninsured patients of the Brooklyn Free Clinic.

"It can be really challenging and frustrating thing when people don't have a lot of money and they have to choose between food and filling a prescription. They're not going to fill it and they're not going to get better," says Mr. Floyd.

The idea to start such a fund began in March when Mr. Floyd and his father challenged each other to do something for the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Mr. Floyd reached out to a few bartender friends with the idea to contribute a night's worth of tips to the Red Cross. Out of that grew the fund and the expanded mission to contribute in the community.

Finding projects that can be accomplished with just one gift from the fund is a challenge, says Mr. Floyd.

Another snag is that sometimes during the charity shifts, customers can confuse the offering of a tip on a drink for a charitable contribution to an official nonprofit. To be sure, the fund isn't incorporated and the bartenders consider themselves just a community group.

Mr. Floyd's charity shift is the first Friday of the month at the Vanderbilt. The group hopes to cross $10,000 in donations this month.

He says that Barman's Fund nights tend to be fun and people come out with friends because they know that the tip— even if it's just $1—goes to a good cause.

Labels: Being Considerate, Libations and Cuisine, nyc

Posted by: Brian / 8:59 AM

(0) remarks

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Shot of Charity

Great write up in The Brooklyn Paper about Brian Floyd's "The Barman's Fund" - an organization of bartenders using designated nights of tips to give back to specific charities: The Brooklyn Paper - Drinking for a Cause!

Labels: Being Considerate, Libations and Cuisine, nyc

Posted by: Brian / 1:40 PM

(0) remarks