As music played at Sabrosa Saturday night, bottles clinked and the room filled with laughter. Within only an hour of opening, the downtown bar had already exhausted five cases of the new KCCO Black Lager, released by the Western Slope Chive (WSC) movement.

The acronym KCCO represents the unofficial theme of Saturday night’s event, Keep Calm and Chive On. WSC created T-shirts and stickers to commemorate the event, and all proceeds from the sale of this swag will go to Mesa County Partners.

For those who are unfamiliar with The Chive, the group is a photo entertainment webpage that shares pictures with its followers through a smartphone app and on its webpage. Not only is KCCO an entertainment group, it also does work in the community with the group ChiveCharities, fundraising for many different causes.

Pat Sullivan and Mike Sweeney, both 25-year-old Grand Junction natives, are two of the head honchos leading the Western Slope Chive movement, along with their colleagues Darin Huisjen and Cassie Davis.

Sullivan, Sweeny and their crew believed that the Western Slope was missing something, a “web that connects everyone in town from young to old, students to professionals, including kids, and in the end brings them all together for events of common fun and interest while giving back at the same time,” according to Sullivan.

WSC started last year with a kick-off event at Naggy McGee’s Irish Pub downtown, raising over $3,000 for Mesa County Partners as well as $500 for flood victims on the Front Range.

Sullivan, Sweeney and Devin Dean, a partner at Sabrosa, believed the popular bar would be the perfect place for the KCCO Black Lager kickoff event. With a no-drama, local watering hole feel, Sabrosa will be the only bar on the Western Slope serving the new beer until March.

In the end, Sullivan and Sweeney want WSC to have more credibility and a great reputation throughout the Western Slope. “You don’t have to know what The Chive is, but if you feel like giving back to your community and having fun at the same time, then WSC is the place to do it,” Sweeny said.

braber@mavs.coloradomesa.edu