Tampa breweries are 'brewing funds' to find a cure for childhood cancer

Breweries like Cigar City Brewing Company and Brew Bus Brewing are all about dedication, devotion and, most importantly, community.

"We don't have TVs here showing sports," said Justin Clark, chief operating officer of the Tampa brewery. "We love our local sports teams, but we want you to be forced to talk to your neighbor. The pub and the brewery used to be a place where it would be the center of town and you'd find out what is going on."

Those breweries are becoming destinations for families as opposed to strictly catering to adults.

"It's that sense of communities that were bringing together at all the breweries and that's why families feel comfortable," Clark said. "The brewery isn't your baby sitter but the family is definitely welcome. If the kids are well-behaved they'll be welcome at all the breweries."

It's a destination for the entire clan with a dedication to children.

"Since 2017, we have partnered with Brew Bus Brewing for a beer that raises awareness and funds for the Pediatric Cancer Foundation," Clark explained. "We've made something that we think can be passed around to different breweries all across the country, and they can have a great recipe, change a little to fit their system but still come out with a great product at the end and hopefully raising a lot of money for the Pediatric Cancer Foundation."

"Rising Hope" is an IPA beer with fruit notes that give it a Florida taste. All of of the proceeds goes to the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation.

"People don't realize that only 4 percent of the billions of dollars that is raised goes towards pediatric cancer research -- 94 percent have defects," said Chris Geib with the National Pediatric Foundation. "Health defects leading on even when their 20 and so on. Basically we have 24 partnering hospitals nationwide that are doing collaborative trials and different research to find targeted, less toxic treatments for kids so every dollar goes to our programs."

Breweries in more than two dozens states are participating in brewing "Rising Hope" IPA. It's great to see so many getting involved and supporting a great cause but it also shows how great the need is and hopefully there is a day when this is no longer needed.

"Unfortunately, you don't have to draw too many parallels to find someone affected by cancer within your own family," Clark said. "To see a child go through that I think it's easy for almost anyone to get behind this to make sure that a child never has to gone through something like that."

LINK: For more information and destinations, head over to brewingfundsthecure.org