By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

The Downtown Hays Development Corporation – organizer of downtown events that occur throughout the year – is getting ready for its next event, Wines and Steins next Friday, but while the events will give participants another opportunity to explore downtown Hays, it serves an important role for the organization as its primary fundraiser for the year.

“Wines and Steins is our huge fundraiser for the year, we do a lot of events, but all of them are just events for us, we break even on almost everything,” said Sara Bloom, executive director of the DHDC.

“We get some of our money from the City of Hays, we get the other half from this one event,” she said.

While the event helps provide for the DHDC’s funding needs, it is an community event, like others the DHDC organizes.

“It draws people downtown to celebrate the beauty that our downtown has become,” Bloom said. “It also celebrates the DHDC and all that we have accomplished.”

The event will give participants to opportunity to visit downtown shops, with each having refreshments available, but as the name suggests, it will be adult fare and no one under 21 is allowed to participate.

“There will be beer selection and a wine selection at each stop, as well as a hors d’oeuvres that the participating business is providing to complement those drinks,” Bloom said.

The event will begin at 6 p.m. with check in where a pamphlet will be distributed showing all 16 event locations. ID’s will be used as the way to check in and ensure no one under 21 is participating.

At 9 p.m., the businesses will close and the post-stroll celebration will begin behind the former Emprise Bank, 1200 Main. The celebration will include music, food and as a matter of course, more drinks as well as the live auction in conjunction with the silent auction going on throughout the event.

“We have everything from a gift card truck to massage packages to airline tickets,” Bloom said.

All items for the auction were donated to assist in the fundraising effort.

“We’re very very thankful for all of the donors that have given to the auction, as well as our many many sponsors,” Bloom said, noting the sponsors cover the expenses in order for the event to be a fundraiser.

Tickets are on sale now, at $50 each, with less than a third of the 300 total tickets still available. They can be purchased online at downtownhays.com, at any of the stroll stops, or at the Hays Welcome Center, 2700 Vine.