<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve ever been at a bar when drink orders are coming in faster than they can go out, you know how demanding the job of a bartender can be.<\/p>\n
Like any occupation, the good ones make it look effortless.<\/p>\n
For the 12th year, Reading Public Library put untrained bartenders behind the bar at Saucony Creek Franklin Station Brewpub, just a few blocks from the main branch. The May 20 Celebrity Bartender fundraiser broke another record, pulling in about $30,000 for the library.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s an impressive total, considering no actual celebrities were pouring pints or mixing cocktails. If you were hoping to spot Jerry Seinfeld, Ben Stiller, Taylor Swift or Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, you needed to be at Madison Square Garden, where the biggest names in entertainment have been showing up courtside during the New York Knicks\u2019 championship run.<\/p>\n
Instead, attendees got Izzy Gonzalez, a local real estate broker and co-owner of Atlas Land and Homes; Kaitlin Daley, a Berks County assistant district attorney; Peter Rye, board chair and chief strategy officer of Brentwood Industries Inc.; and Sabrena Elmarzouky, owner of Queens\u2019 Cafe in Spring Township.<\/p>\n
Not exactly household names \u2014 but that wasn\u2019t the point.<\/p>\n
The point, Daley told me, was to get people to come out with their wallets to support the guest bartenders \u2014 their friends, co\u2011workers, or family members and others \u2014 and have a good time while backing a good cause.<\/p>\n
I asked Daley how she ended up behind the bar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked,\u201d she said. \u201cI go to the event every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s been a guest bartender for three years \u2014 the same amount of time she\u2019s served on the Reading Public Library Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just helping out because I feel passionate about the library,\u201d said Daley, now the board president. \u201cSo, for me, it was an easy yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saucony Creek pairs the guest bartenders with the brewpub\u2019s professional staff, who can troubleshoot payment processing and keep things moving when the crowd gets thick.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hectic and chaotic, but it\u2019s a lot of fun,\u201d Daley said.<\/p>\n
One of the things she likes most is that people of limited means can still participate. It\u2019s not a ticketed event, so anyone can stop in, grab a drink, and contribute whatever they\u2019re comfortable giving.<\/p>\n
The timing helps, too \u2014 5 to 8 p.m., with a spread of appetizers \u2014 making it easy for people to swing by after work without committing their whole evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe raised money up to and through this event,\u201d Daley said. \u201cThe goal was $15,000, and we raised a little over $30,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daley\u2019s day job involves prosecuting criminal cases, but for one night a year she trades the courtroom for the barroom \u2014 and customers, she said, tip generously because they know exactly where the money is going.<\/p>\n
Still, she added with a grin, her pours aren\u2019t too shabby.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.readingeagle.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you\u2019ve ever been at a bar when drink orders are coming in faster than they can go out, you know how demanding the job of a bartender can be. Like any occupation, the good ones make it look effortless. For the 12th year, Reading Public Library put untrained bartenders behind the bar at Saucony […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2456484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[340564,22764,373225,311424,353778,23982,378524],"class_list":["post-2456483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-berks-county","tag-local-news","tag-ontap","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-reg"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Celebrity-bartenders-prove-fame-unnecessary-to-fill-tip-jars-Opinion.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2456486,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456483\/revisions\/2456486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2456484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}