Greg Koch Responds To Questions Regarding Colorado Shootings and Dye-Hards For Charity
This morning, I reached out to Stone Brewing Co. CEO Greg Koch regarding the possible connection people could make between the tragic Aurora, Colorado shootings last week involving the red dyed, alleged shooter James Homes. It was my opinion at the very least, that someone going into a hair salon asking for a red dye job would raise an eyebrow, as would coming out of a hair salon with red dyed hair.
Greg Koch’s original response to me was this:
“There’s no connection between the two, and it would be inappropriate to draw one.”
So because Greg thought it was inappropriate to draw the connection, out of respect to the charitable cause, I decided not to help other folks draw the connection.
Then Greg Koch posted this a few minutes ago:
“A couple folks have asked me if, due to the fact that the Colorado shooter evidently has orange hair, we’re going to choose to not dye our heads red this August for our every-two-years fundraiser called Dye-Hards for Charity.
My response has been that there is, of course, no connection whatsoever between our fundraising event, and that terribly disturbed person, and drawing one would be inappropriate. Thus, we are not altering our plans to raise money for important local charities. Hell, I’m not going to let some wacko steal the color red from us. Or the great positive energy we have with our awesome fundraising event.
So with all that said, if you participate in this, please let people know this has been a great fundraising tradition that won’t be stifled by one bad guy (allegedly) who happened to dye his hair red.
July 25, 2012 @ 2:51 pm
Bill –
While I completely agree that it’s a stretch, Dan was not the first or only person to wonder aloud whether or not this might be an issue. No need to be so aggressively rude to him. I’m glad a couple people asked as it helped us answer the question for anyone else that might have had it. In times like this, folks aren’t always certain how to react. We don’t have a lot of context for “the right thing to do,” so some start guessing what that is…or isn’t. I was happy to give the clarity to that question in our case with the simple and straightforward comment that there is no connection whatsoever, and we’re not going to draw one.
-Greg.
July 25, 2012 @ 5:11 am
Not to mention the fact that if one guy dyes his hair and commits an unspeakable atrocity — this means nobody can ever dye their hair that color again? Let alone the fact that this is a LONG STANDING charitable event? What planet am I on? Actually, you’re right: The next time someone robs a bank and gets away in a Camry, Toyota should close it’s doors. Top notch blogging.
July 25, 2012 @ 5:02 am
Is this a joke? Who would have drawn that conclusion? Not only was is the shooter’s hair ORANGE… to even have that cross your mind an inquire to Koch directly is journalistically insulting. Way to manufacture a story, you clown.
July 24, 2012 @ 7:32 pm
IMHO Greg might want to reconsider. Too soon.