Mack Deibel is being honored as the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Month for his hard work and dedication to the Sandpoint Beerfest.

Deibel brought the fundraising idea to the chamber’s board of directors five years ago. It started simply, in the MickDuff’s Beer Hall Parking lot the first two years with 200 attendees. The event moved to the lawn at Trinity at City Beach in 2015 to allow for growth. This year marked the event’s fifth year, with just under 1,000 attendees.

The event has grown from a small beer hall gathering to the chamber’s biggest fundraising event of the year.

Each year, Deibel volunteers hours of his time connecting with regional brewers, taking phone calls, emails, and texts from chamber staff with questions, attending monthly Beerfest committee meetings, coming up with new ideas each year … all of which have been hugely successful, and working a 12-15 hours on Beerfest day, all while maintaining his full time job as brewer master at MickDuff’s Brewing Company, and working his family farm.

“We are so grateful for MickDuff’s, specifically Mack, for helping us make this a premier event for the chamber and for Sandpoint,” Greater Sandpoint Chamber President Kate McAlister said.

“Being a small non-profit we rely on this and our other events to keep us going through the year. Thank you Mack.”