Photo by @judasyeast on Instagram.

Guest blogger Carlos Contreras is a poet and Good Time Liaison at Tractor Brewing Company.

Rebecca Minton and I sat down recently to chat about a collaborative event, Beer and Bands for Better Sex Ed, that Tractor Brewing Company and Planned Parenthood are putting on in support of Planned Parenthood’s services. The event is geared toward awareness, education, community and fun. It’s happening Saturday, May 16 in Albuquerque, NM.

“Planned Parenthood Federation of America will be celebrating its 100th birthday in 2016, and we recently celebrated 50 years here in New Mexico. Planned Parenthood is a reproductive healthcare provider and our services include yearly well woman exams, breast cancer screenings, birth control, abortion, and STI screenings,” Minton said when I asked her to describe her organization. Her organization’s choice to build a fundraiser around a brewing company was pretty straightforward: “We wanted a location that was fun and casual, and not a typical concert venue. The local beer scene has really expanded in Albuquerque lately and we wanted our event to be part of that culture.”

It’s Pillamina! Photo courtesy of Tractor Brewing Company.

Great idea, right? Great bands, too—Lindy Vision, Beard, and Merican Slang will all be playing the event. There will be a special guest from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America: Pillamina, the giant pack of birth control pills, who will be available for photos as well! Sound like fun? It sounded like a great idea to many folks who ended up sponsoring this large event.

“Tractor has been supportive of Planned Parenthood events in the past, and they were receptive and excited to host our event. We love the indoor/outdoor layout of Wells Park and think it will make for a great event! The response has been great! People are excited about a fun way to support responsible sex education in New Mexico. We’ve partnered with the bands, local news sources and Coyote 102.5 to get the word out. Equality New Mexico, ProgressNow NM, Transgender Resource Center, and United Court of the Sandias have all come in as sponsors, as well as many individual donors. We’ve also received raffle prize donations from many local businesses including: Self Serve, Artichoke Café, ABQ Trolley, the Albuquerque Isotopes, Humble Coffee, and many more,” Minton said.

Wow! It really sounds like when a community comes together and you combine art, music, food and beer, you really can’t go wrong. Ingredients to a successful endeavor, perhaps? We think so.

This post was coproduced by Pyragraph and sponsor Tractor Brewing Company.