Imagination Bacon

Imagination Bacon attendees attend the 2025 event.

MORE DETAILS FOR 2026 COMING SOON!

Imagination Bacon: Bacon & Brews for Books is a bacon & brew fest featuring local craft brew and wine samples alongside unique bacon-inspired appetizers. This fun event supports Dolly Parton's Imagination Library Program, which mails a free, age-appropriate book to registered children ages 0-5 in Hall, Hamilton, Howard, and Merrick Counties. Our goal is to help ensure all children start kindergarten with a library of their own. The past two years Imagination Bacon has had over 650 attendees, leaving an incredible impact in the Heartland United Way's four counties! 

Imagination Bacon Sponsorship Form 2026

Sponsorships directly benefit our local Imagination Library program, as all proceeds will be dedicated to its funding. We appreciate your consideration to support our mission, to provide each child with a library of their own, and help parents be their child's best first teacher. If interested in sponsoring this event, please review the information below and complete the webform by June 19th so our team can recognize you for your support.

 

Please contact Karly at karly@heartlandunitedway.org with any event questions you may have, or Sharon at finance@heartlandunitedway.org with any financial questions you may have. Thank you!

 

To receive Imagination Bacon Event Updates & Sponsor Tickets.
Please input any event requests regarding seating, tickets, and/or social media.

Imagination Bacon: Bacon & Brews for Books is a bacon & brew fest featuring local craft brew and wine samples alongside unique bacon-inspired appetizers! This year's event is on Friday, August 7th, 2026! Guests mingle, munch, and bid on auction items while enjoying live music by Blacktop Pony! Attendees must be 21+ to attend, and the past two years this event has sold out! Each attendee will vote for their favorite bacon & brew vendor to be the "Best Bacon Maker" & "Boss Hog Brewer". The 2 winning vendors will house the traveling trophies for the following year!  

All proceeds from this event benefit the Heartland United Way's Imagination Library program to mail one book a month to over 3000 enrolled children ages 0-5 in Hall, Hamilton, Howard, & Merrick Counties! Our goal is to ensure each child starts kindergarten with a library of their own!

If interested in making this event even more sizzling as a bacon vendor, we'd love to have you! Please complete the form below by July 1st to secure your spot on the event map! 

If you have any questions, please contact Karly Behrendt at karly@heartlandunitedway.org, or call the Heartland United Way at 308-382-2675.

Requested Products: Please check the products you will need so Heartland United Way can have them available for you.
Will you need an electrical outlet at your table?
If you have specific amp service that you need, please email karly@heartlandunitedway.org.
Requested # of tickets: We will provide up to 4 tickets for people working your booth at the event. How many tickets would you like to request?

Please check the boxes below to declare that you understand the following bacon maker vendor information. 

Please upload the logo you would like our team to utilize for printed and digital marketing and promotional materials.
One file only.
200 MB limit.
Allowed types: gif, jpg, jpeg, png, bmp, eps, tif, pict, psd, txt, rtf, html, odf, pdf, doc, docx, ppt, pptx, xls, xlsx, xml, avi, mov, mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, bz2, dmg, gz, jar, rar, sit, svg, tar, zip.

What appetizer do you plan to serve? Please keep in mind we are asking each vendor to prepare 600 samples for this event, and each one must contain bacon in some shape/way (Thanks to generous sponsors, the bacon will be provided to you)!! If you don't know yet, no worries, we just ask that you email what you decide to karly@heartlandunitedway.org no later than July 15th.

 

 

Imagination Bacon: Bacon & Brews for Books is a bacon & brew fest featuring local craft brew and wine samples alongside unique bacon-inspired appetizers! This year's event is on Friday, August 7th, 2026. Guests mingle, munch, and bid on auction items while enjoying live music by Blacktop Pony! Attendees must be 21+ to attend, and the past two years this event has sold out! 

All proceeds from this event benefit the Heartland United Way's Imagination Library program to mail one book a month to over 3000 enrolled children ages 0-5 in Hall, Hamilton, Howard, & Merrick Counties! Our goal is to ensure each child starts kindergarten with a library of their own! Each attendee will vote for their favorite brew/wine vendor to be the "Boss Hog Brewer" and the winner of the beverage competition will house the traveling trophy for the following year!  If you'd like to "pour" something special into this event as a brew/wine vendor, we'd love to have you! 

We want this to be a representation of what you offer at your business to encourage the community to support your business after this event. Please note, vendors that would like to provide non-alcoholic options are also welcome to participate. 

Please complete the form below by July 1st to secure your spot on the event map! If you have any questions, please contact Karly Behrendt at karly@heartlandunitedway.org, or call the Heartland United Way at 308-382-2675.

Requested # of tickets: We will provide up to 4 tickets for people working your booth at the event. How many tickets would you like to request?
Will you need an electrical outlet at your table?
If you have specific amp service that you need, please email karly@heartlandunitedway.org.

Please check the boxes below to declare that you understand the following brew/wine vendor information. 

Please upload the logo you would like our team to utilize for printed and digital marketing and promotional materials.
One file only.
200 MB limit.
Allowed types: gif, jpg, jpeg, png, bmp, eps, tif, pict, psd, txt, rtf, html, odf, pdf, doc, docx, ppt, pptx, xls, xlsx, xml, avi, mov, mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, bz2, dmg, gz, jar, rar, sit, svg, tar, zip.

We want this to be a representation of what you offer at your business to encourage the community to support your business after this event. Please note, vendors that would like to provide non-alcoholic options are also welcome to participate. 

Please list the products you plan to showcase. Please keep in mind we are asking each vendor to prepare 600 samples for this event. If you don't know yet, no worries, we just ask that you email what you decide to karly@heartlandunitedway.org no later than July 15th.

 

 

Event Details

Event Date
Fri, Aug 7, 2026 | 6:00pm - 9:00pm

690 E Stolley Park Road
Grand Island, NE 68801
United States