Bar fairies help keep our roads safe

Fifteen gift cards were sprinkled on vehicles left overnight at bars around Whitefish last weekend. The weekend prior, nine gift cards were secretly tucked onto vehicles left at drinking establishments in Kalispell, Lakeside and Somers.

These small tokens of appreciation are the work of the Montana Bar Fairies, a local group raising awareness about drunk driving in the Flathead Valley and incentivizing drivers to find a safe ride home — one $5 coffee card at a time. 

“It’s a way to honor the memories of the people we have lost, but ultimately our goal is to reduce fatalities due to drunk drivers in our area, and hopefully, eventually, in the state of Montana,” Carli Dewbre said in a February interview with the Daily Inter Lake.