Fans tip injured Cleveland 'Beer Guy' over $25,000
Cleveland sports fans came together over the past couple of weeks to help one of their own and a local legend.
Per Marc Bona of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, individuals flocked to a GoFundMe page to donate after Les "The Beer Guy" Flake was involved in an at-home accident that left him injured and will prevent him from working Cleveland Guardians MLB games throughout the summer.
Matt Vann of local brewery The Jolly Scholar, which features the "Cold Beer Here" beverage in honor of Flake, told Bona he shut the GoFundMe donation page down after it raised $25,271.
"I think at the end of the day it way exceeded all of our expectations," Vann said of originally hoping to raise a maximum of $10,000 for Flake. "I thought it could get to $10,000. I thought it would take seven to 10 days. Anything over would be a bonus."
Cleveland Magazine once named Flake, 65, among the city's most interesting people for his work at Guardians, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Monsters (American Hockey League) games.
A healthy Flake also serves concertgoers at the Blossom Music Center venue, located a short drive away from downtown Cleveland. He has become a Northeast Ohio icon in part because of his well-known call:
"Not the mailman! Not the gas man! Not the tax man! The beer guy’s here!"
"I’m OK," Flake said about his ruptured quadricep tendon he suffered that left him needing surgery. "...When Matt talked to me I thought, 'Maybe I’ll get a couple of thousand dollars.' This is like, 'Wow.' I am so thankful and I am so blessed. This has been grace from God. I always knew I had a little following but nothing like this."
The GoFundMe page created on May 2 notes that Flake won't be able to return to work for roughly four months. Such a timeline, ideally, will have Cleveland's "Beer Guy" back in action for the heart of the upcoming Browns season.
Until then, Vann said proceeds from the sale of "Cold Beer Here" will go to Flake "for several months."
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