Ladies Who Beer: Vernon teetotallers and wine drinkers welcome

VERNON – Stacey Todd co-founded the group Ladies Who Beer after she made a joke at a breastfeeding support group and only one person laughed.

As a new mom, Todd said she loved the support from the breastfeeding group but realized she also really to needed to let her hair down.

"It felt like there was a hole. Where's the group for people who want to get together have a good time, be social, but also do good things in the community and support each other?" she said.

So together with friend Melissa Yano, they created Ladies Who Beer, a sassy take on ladies who lunch.

"We're ladies who beer because I ain't got time to drink Chardonnay during the day and give thousands of dollars away," Todd said. "I wish I could… (but) that's not my style."

First and foremost Todd said the group is a social club with a goal to do good things around the community. The group pools their membership fees together and use them to give back to the community.

"Our motto is by women, for women, supporting women," she said. They also accept members who identify as female.

And contrary to their name, you actually don't have to like beer or even drink alcohol to be a member.

Membership to join the group costs $50 a year and they hold four official social events a year. They currently have about 45 members, who are generally in their late 20s to early 50s.

A Vernon resident for four years and a single mom with a two-and-a-half-year-old, the graphic designer said she wanted to create a group that didn't specify any kind of identity and had no mold to fit into.

"You don't have to be a mom, but we have moms, you don't have to be a non-mom but we have non-moms, you don't have to be a business owner but we have business owners," she said.

She also sees the group as a way to bridge a gap that often occurs at other social groups.

"You're at that awkward… how do we take this friendship from the yoga room to, 'let's go to the park tomorrow with our kids?'" she said. "It's like asking someone out on a date."

Since forming the group Todd said she's met an array of amazing women from a cross-section of society, learned a lot and felt a strong sense of empowerment.

And how much beer do they actually drink?

"It's pretty tame," she said. "[Just] a bunch of woman sitting around a table eating a charcuterie board having a drink, laughing."

Although she does admit she's put a few people in cabs at the end of the night.

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