Break out the beer goggles and galoshes, cause the Ghent Bar Tour is back.

We spoke to Scott Guirlinger, the event’s organizer, about putting the event together, where the money goes, and Ghent as a neighborhood.

AltDaily: For those not familiar with the Ghent Bar Tour, give us the basics. How does it work?

Good stuff like this happens on the Ghent Bar Tour.

Scott Guirlinger: All event participants pay a registration fee, which gets them an event shirt, souvenir cup, magnet, keychain, map, other goodies, and a wristband that entitles them to specials at all participating locations. All of the net proceeds from the event are donated directly to charity. Unlike a traditional pub crawl, everyone does not travel in one group from bar to bar in a set order. We have a starting location (Plaza del Sol) where participants pick up their registration materials and an ending location (The New Belmont) where we hold our big closing ceremony, but otherwise participants can travel at their own pace and order from spot to spot in-between. You don’t have to visit every stop, but if you do, we provide you with a cool little prize at the end.

You started this on your own? What was your motivation?

The original Ghent Bar Tour in Summer 2005 was basically just myself, my roommate Joe, and about 25 friends bar-hopping in Ghent on a Friday evening to sample several of the local watering holes in the neighborhood we had moved into a couple months before. It was only as sophisticated as sending an email to a bunch of people. Then people who made it wanted to know when we would do it again. Never being one to disappoint, I thought about it and decided to look into getting some sort of “group discount” at the bars to save on the cost of the night as well as getting some shirts or other fun stuff to wear. And since I would be collecting money for shirts, I needed to figure out what we would do with anything leftover. I figured the best thing would just be to donate it all to charity.

(If you want more background, go here.)

Last year you had over 1,000 participants and raised over $20,000. Very impressive. What were some of the highlights of last year’s events?

It might sound strange, but the thing everyone remembers from last year is the worst weather we’ve experienced yet. We had been blessed for several years with great weather on event days and then last year we got hit with rain and temperatures just above freezing. But as you can see from the record numbers we posted, participants still came out in force just as much as ever. It really showed us that our participants are dedicated to the causes we serve and will come out to crawl no matter what, rain or shine. Thankfully, another first-time highlight of the event was the heated tent out back of The New Belmont where we held our closing ceremony festivities. The music and the crowd (as well as the warmth) inside the tent really capped off the night on a high note.

What does having the event in Ghent bring to the table?

Ghent is where we started and as can be witnessed by our official business name, Ghent Bar Tours, Ghent will be our home for a while to come. Even though Ghent is situated in the heart of Norfolk, it has a certain small town feel to it that helps give the event a different vibe than if it were in a downtown setting. Plus, everyone in the area has heard of many of the regional chain restaurants and well-known downtown establishments; this event showcases some of Norfolk’s more local flavors. We hear from participants all the time at our events in Ghent that they were unaware a particular restaurant was there and are looking forward to coming back again sometime soon.

This year the benefits go to Edmarc Hospice for Children. Tell me about them, and why you chose them as this year’s beneficiary.

Crawl for a cause.

I should begin by saying that Edmarc was selected as the sole beneficiary of this event from a pool of eight charities. So we were very much impressed by them. They are a locally-founded organization that provides many services but are especially focused on getting children with life-threatening illnesses out of the hospital and back into their home where they can be in a more comfortable and safe setting with their family. Through their clinical care program, Edmarc brings the necessary care for sick children directly to them and saves the family from numerous trips to doctor offices, clinics, and hospitals. Edmarc truly provides a solution to benefit the whole family, not just the sick child, and therefore significantly reduces the disabling effects of pediatric illness, loss, and bereavement on the family. Families stay together and make it through traumatic illnesses and deaths of children in their family because of Edmarc. In one word, what they do is AMAZING.

How can people donate or get involved if they don’t want to do the drinking thing?

The simplest way is to just not drink. It may sound surprising, but there are quite a number of participants at our events that do not drink at all. They simply come for the good times hanging out with friends and get a shirt, cup, wristband and everything else same as all the others. Several establishments offer food specials to participants that night as well. If folks are looking to get involved at the event beyond just participating, we always have a need for volunteers. They just need to go online and submit a volunteer interest form several weeks before the event. For anyone that can’t make it to the actual event, they can always donate money, which goes directly to the charity, or they can donate some product or service, which we will use for a competition or raffle prize.

Your entire operation is volunteer?

Ghent Bar Tours operates with a strictly volunteer staff; no one is paid or otherwise compensated for organizing an event. Thankfully, we have a very large group of dedicated volunteers who support us throughout the year in planning and executing our events. It’s only because of their graciously donated time and energy that we can continue to fundraise for charitable causes in our local community.

The Ghent Bar Tour takes place February 27th from 4:00 PM until 9:00 PM. Click here to register or for more information.