Editor’s note: This is another in a series of personality profiles written by students in Jodi Williams’ English 1101 class at the University of North Georgia Blue Ridge campus. Each story is a first hand account of a local person who has made an impact on the author. As you read these stories, you will hear of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
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By Grace Henderson
When customers walk in Copperhill Brewery, they can automatically tell they are somewhere special. When walking in customers are greeted by the bartenders and happy faces. The interior is bright with splashes of color all over the walls that are covered in money and patches, merchandise stands, tables in the windows and scattered across the room, leather couches, dart boards, and a small gaming room in the corner. The first responders’ patches hang on the walls across the room. “We have patches from all over the United States, I think we are at 220, when you look at them you don’t realize how many there are until you start counting them.” There are thousands of dollar bills on the walls as a part of a tradition started in 2018 when the brewery first opened. One of the owners, Colleen Fults, was one of the first to put a dollar on one of the walls just one month after opening. She has three other dollars from other people on the wall wishing her and her husband luck in their new business. These parties allow people to be able to leave their marks behind on dollar bills with thousands of different messages from people all over the world. Colleen laughs as she says “People come in and just want other people to know they were here. Whether it’s from birthdays, sports games, family reunions, or any other events.” Colleen’s favorite thing about owning the brewery is being able to talk and interact with those people and learn how they got to McCaysville/Copperhill.
The Copperhill Brewery was started in 2018 with just the one building in Copperhill where the beer was brewed in the backroom. As the amount to customers grew it was expanded to a second location in Ducktown where they have large tanks to brew the beer. The brewery is currently owned by Colleen Fults, Sarah Berry, and their husbands who bought the brewery in 2021 and are keeping the business alive and thriving. The owners along with the building have a positive atmosphere around them. Colleen and Sarah can often be found smiling while chatting with friends and customers, they are very welcoming and easy to talk to. When they heard the business was up for sale, they quickly decided to purchase it. Colleen smiles as she remembers buying the business. “It was the sense of community, and we just didn’t want to see it close…it was a great product... and the people is what make it.” They did not want people to lose their jobs and wanted to keep brewing great beer and be a fun and safe place for the community.
Colleen has been going to the brewery since its opening in 2018. She has been in the financial business for over 40 years and was ready to retire when she heard of the brewery shutting down. Sarah moved to town to be closer to her daughter while she was attending college and started going to the brewery. Colleen and Sarah met in 2020 and became friends and decided to take over since everything was already set up and it just needed new owners, it just made sense to keep it going. “The products were already there, the procedures were already there, the buildings were already there, everything was already done.” Everything was up and running, they already had customers, and they had background knowledge of what was going on, all that changed were a few procedures to make things run smoother and be more efficient and the brewery was ready to go.
Located right on the state border, the Copperhill location depicts the state line in the parking lot and continues it through the building where people love to take pictures. The brewery is home to weekly game nights, and on Thursdays they alternate between trivia and musical bingo (also known as singo). Trivia consists of seven rounds of random categories plus one final round to earn extra points. For Singo everybody gets a sheet of paper with two playing cards on it and the game proceeds like normal bingo. Songs of different genres that are stated at the start of the round will play and the squares are stamped as the songs play. These games yield many prizes for the winners and are very fun and easy. These events are big hits in the area with many people who travel to play. “One of the favorite events that I really love to do is the singo. It’s so much fun because so many people get involved and just sing, it’s great fun for everybody,” Colleen laughs. It is a good time at singo as everyone tries to hit high notes and remember song titles. The winner of singo as punishment for winning also has to walk the room as people throw their crumbled up playing sheets.
Together the women have many different events they host for people in need. They are currently collecting toys for Toys for Tots and money for Family Connection. Toys for Tots is a charity run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve and works to distribute toys (donated new) to children whose parents cannot afford presents. Colleen and Sarah also plan to donate the money covering the walls to charity. Colleen explains, “We chose Family Connections because it reaches numerous areas in the community, so all donations and contributions benefit more people. We also chose the Boys and Girls Club of Polk County and Copper Basin because of our love for children.” The Family Connection works toward healthy and successful children and families and helping communities thrive. While the Boys and Girls club works to have a safe, positive, and inclusive environment for all youth no matter race, gender, ethnicity, or background.
They plan to further the business by building on to their location in Ducktown, where all of the beer is brewed with giant tanks out in the open for viewers, as long as they stay behind the ropes. Since Colleen and Sarah own the building outright, they plan to do more with it as they have recently bought the property beside it. The current plan is to add picnic benches, fencing, and hopefully even a dog park to the lot to be available to all community members. “The most important thing about this place is we have great beer but it’s the people—it’s really the people in the community,” says Colleen. Both Sarah and Colleen are in the Chamber of Commerce in both Polk and Fannin County, and Sarah is also on the tourism committee in Fannin County. Both women truly love helping the community in any way they can to help everyone come together and have a joyful time.
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