Coalition to Represent American Flavor & Tradition<\/a>, known as C.R.A.F.T., started less than a year ago and is already working with 120 organizations in the adult beverage industry, according to Michael Waskewich, the organization\u2019s president.<\/p>\nWaskewich said C.R.A.F.T. supports veteran-owned, veteran-founded and veteran-allied businesses by helping them navigate the industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a very hard system to get into,\u201d Waskewich said. \u201cSo it takes a specialized group of individuals to kind of help those organizations grow and reach new customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joe Faino, CEO of Tropicana Craft Distilling Group, has been making alcohol for more than a decade. He said he is not a veteran, but his father, grandfather, father-in-law and brother, Tom Dow, all served.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of events over the last 11 years,\u201d Faino said. \u201cNever have I done one that was veteran-oriented.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faino said C.R.A.F.T. has helped connect his business with new opportunities, including exposure to a distributor and the ability to show and sample products during an event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey started mentioning a lot of opportunities for us,\u201d Faino said. \u201cGetting us in front of a distributor, the ability to see products the day of the event, as well as do the sampling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dow, an Army veteran, said Faino helped him figure out his next steps after leaving military service. He said that type of support has continued with other recent hires.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t teach us when we\u2019re in the Army what we\u2019re going to do in the afterlife, what we call the civilian world,\u201d Dow said.<\/p>\n
Faino said he is proud to work with C.R.A.F.T. and hopes sharing his story encourages other veterans to consider opportunities in the industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should do everything we can to reach out to that community,\u201d Faino said. \u201cAnd this gives us that opportunity to help close that loop, to bring them in.\u201d<\/p>\n
C.R.A.F.T. is hosting Frontline Tastings<\/a> with veteran entrepreneurs on Sept. 24. The Military Influencer Conference starts Wednesday and runs through Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A new nonprofit organization is working to help veterans and veteran-affiliated businesses enter the adult…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4628,115,135,137,136,835],"class_list":["post-406715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-matt-lackritz","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}