Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, the top-selling Black-owned spirits brand across the globe, is doing their big one for historically black colleges around the U.S. once again. The brand recently launched its second-annual HBCU Old Fashioned Challenge to raise $1.4 million for HBCUs. This whopping amount is reportedly equivalent to one full in-state tuition scholarship for an HBCU student.

The initiative, which officially kicked off on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Monday, January 15), will run through to Juneteenth (Tuesday, June 19). Uncle Nearest has been partnering with restaurants, bars, retailers, e-Commerce partners, to raise the funds.

“Before we sold our first bottle of Uncle Nearest, we were already funding the college education of Nearest Green’s descendants,” Fawn Weaver, Founder and CEO of Uncle Nearest, said in a press release. “Every semester, writing those checks brought me immense joy, knowing the significant impact they would have on each student’s life. This same feeling resurfaced when I began writing tuition checks to HBCUs for our Old Fashioned Challenge. It’s an honor, and my hope is that we can continue this tradition annually with the checks growing larger as the Uncle Nearest whiskey family expands.”

Victoria Eady Butler, great-great-granddaughter of Nearest Green and four-time Master Blender of the Year, added that the HBCU Old Fashioned Challenge “is something special.”

“Uncle Nearest gives a lot, with ‘pulling as we climb’ being part of our DNA right from the start, but this challenge is something special, ’cause we’re inviting our whiskey family to join us in giving back,” she said in the release. “Seeing the excitement from them, and our thousands of retail, restaurant, bar, hotel, and airline partners across the country even before this year’s challenge kicked off, well, that lets me know we’ve started something extraordinary. To our whiskey family and partners everywhere, thank y’all!”

There are a few ways to participate in Uncle Nearest’s HBCU Old Fashioned Challenge including:

Ordering an Uncle Nearest Old Fashioned cocktail at participating bars and restaurants, where one dollar will be donated per drink ordered.
Purchasing a bottle of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey at participating online and physical retail stores, where one dollar will be donated per bottle purchased.
Buying an Old Fashioned Bundle through ReserveBar, where two dollars will be donated for every bundle purchased.
Submitting a photograph of a homemade Uncle Nearest Old Fashioned to www.oldfashionedcocktail.com, where one dollar will be donated per submission.

Fore more information on Uncle Nearest’s HBCU Old Fashioned Challenge please visit www.oldfashionedcocktail.com.

Image Credit: Uncle Nearest Whiskey

Readers May Also Like: