Anne Kelly used to travel four days a week for her job. Then about a year and a half ago she was traveling less and she found she had a lot more free time on her hands. She wanted to take that free time and do something that made a difference. “I felt I had the energy to do more for people,” she recalls. “A friend convinced me to join the Rotary Club.”

Then Kelly heard about the Lost Boys of Sudan, the Friends of the Sudanese Lost Boys of Cleveland. “These kids were basically told by their parents to flee on foot with lions and tigers and soldiers,” she explains. “They told the story of how they first got to Cleveland in winter and thought the snow was flour and that we were so wealthy that we let the flour flow into the streets. The first time they got in an elevator they thought it was the room where they would be staying.”

Those stories prompted Kelly to form Drinks for Do-Gooders, a monthly happy hour where for the cost of a drink, people could get together and help the Lost Boys. The first event raised $350. “The Rotary Club really got behind this concept,” says Kelly. “Then the Cleveland Professional 20/30 Club partnered on this, and it allowed me to see that it could grow bigger.”

Today, Drinks for Do-Gooders meets on a quarterly basis. The cover charge is a little higher -- $20 -- but includes drink tickets, appetizers and a raffle. The group has raised between $1,400 and $1,800 for worthwhile causes.

The next Drinks for Do-Gooders meeting is in January and will benefit Ohio City Writers. Best Buy has donated a 60-inch flat screen television to raffle off, and the Cleveland Play House has donated two tickets to an upcoming show. “Come out, have a drink and do some good,” says Kelly. “You can do more in a happy hour than just feeling like you got together for happy hour.”

Source: Anne Kelly
Writer: Karin Connelly