LUSK – St. Patrick’s Day is not just about wearing green and avoiding pinches. The holiday will have a new spin for community members planning to celebrate with green beers.

Niobrara Chamber of Commerce will be hosting the First Annual St. Patrick’s Day Pub Crawl, with the hopes that not everyone will be crawling home. However, overly thirsty crawlers will be offered rides home if necessary.

According to Chamber Director Morgan Nolan, the idea of involving all of the local businesses for the Pub Crawl was brought up during a Chamber Board meeting.

“I brought up the idea during our board meeting for one of our spring events,” said Nolan. “Our Chamber Board members started talking to people about it and we put it together quickly for this year.”

The Chamber will be offering 50 necklaces at $3 each. These will be used to identify official pub crawlers, who will get a dollar off their first drink. The Legends Bar & Grill, The Pub, Silver Dollar Bar & Grill and the Lusk Liquor store are all participating in the Pub Crawl.

“All of the bars and restaurants were kind enough to be willing to participate,” said Nolan. “Basically, if we sell all of the necklaces, we will raise enough money for the auditorium fees at the Fairgrounds for our vendors for future events.”

“I’m just trying to do little things to be able to have the booking fees for this summer,” Nolan added.

The Pub Crawl will be held on March 15, beginning at 4 p.m. Volunteers will provide courtesy rides from the Lusk Liquor Store. The Chamber thanks everyone for not drinking and driving.

“We are still gathering volunteers. The more we have, the better I feel,” said Nolan.  “We do ask passengers to please tip their drivers. We just want our volunteers compensated for their time to encourage them to volunteer again.”

If anyone would like to volunteer as a designated driver for March 15, please contact Nolan at (307) 351-0052.

Customers that visit all four Pub Crawl locations will be eligible for a grand prize at the end of the event.

For upcoming holidays like Easter, Nolan is hoping to put together an Easter egg hunt with local businesses. However, she wants to avoid overlapping with other holiday events. Nolan told the Herald the Chamber hopes to have Oktoberfest, which necessitate courtesy rides as well.