Mariah Calagione honored for community service
Mariah Calagione, the matriarch of Dogfish Head brewery, was honored Oct. 5 with a national award for her community service in the Cape Region.
As part of the 51st annual Jefferson Awards in New York City, Calagione received the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award for Outstanding Public Service Benefiting Local Communities. She was specifically honored for her founding of the Red Wagon Calagione Family Foundation, a nonprofit group that has granted $3.7 million to organizations and people in Delaware.
Calagione said of the honor, “It’s quite humbling! I love that the awards exist to recognize those who make an impact in our communities. I was so energized getting to know so many of the nominees and their stories of inspiration and impact while I was in NYC. Of course, no one does their work in a vacuum, and we all lean on others.”
She cited coworkers at Dogfish Head and partners with the brewery’s Beer and Benevolence program as an example of those who help make Dogfish’s charitable endeavors work.
“Beer and Benevolence has been part of our Dogfish Head DNA for the past 29 years,” Calagione said. “We’ve worked with hundreds of nonprofit organizations up and down the state; we’ve invested and raised millions of dollars for our partners. For some of our smallest partners, our Beer and Benevolence dollars are the bulk of their annual operating budget. For some larger ones, we are just a small part of a much larger community-wide project. I think both are important, because our local communities have supported our business for nearly three decades and it’s imperative that we support them right back. That’s what truly being part of a community is all about.”
The awards are put on by national nonprofit service organization Multiplying Good, whose CEO, Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, said, “We believe that at the heart of every great community and society are individuals and organizations committed to service. The Jefferson Awards exemplify our core belief that service is not just a noble act, but the very fabric that weaves us together as a stronger, more compassionate and resilient society.”
Among Dogfish’s major charitable endeavors is the annual Dogfish Dash race, which has raised more than $1 million for the Nature Conservancy and Delaware Center for the Inland Bays. Benevolence Tips from Dogfish customers at the Milton brewery raised money for homeless organizations in Sussex County.
“Our guests made that happen, and I am so grateful that my coworkers and I can create that connection,” Calagione said.
