(COLORADO SPRINGS) —When you step inside Wackadoo Brewing in Colorado Springs, you’ll notice its atmosphere is much different than other breweries and bars in Southern Colorado; there are no televisions and no loud music.
“Loud noises are an easy trigger for veterans,” Owner Steven Fuller said. “Here, we wanted a place you could unwind and take a step back and enjoy your evening.”
For 14 years, Fuller served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army. Eventually, he’d find retirement, only to be met with a grim diagnosis. “The doctors dropped a bomb on me; I had two to three years left to live and that was going to be it.”
It was the burn pits and exposure to depleted uranium, Fuller said, during his three tours of Iraq, that led him to that diagnosis.
“I went home and do like most people do… you know… pity me, poor me,” Fuller confessed. “And after about two weeks at that, it was like, ‘No, let’s do something with this. Let’s see what I can accomplish with the time that I have left.'”
Wackadoo Brewing was created shortly after, originally selling beer at the VFW in Fountain. Now, the brewery sits at 5158 Cenntenial Boulevard in Colorado Springs.
“I love what I do. The brewery, I can honestly say, saved my life,” said Fuller.
Fuller says he spends anywhere from 80 to 100 hours every week at the brewery, rarely taking a day off. “Here, I have drive, direction, and purpose… especially for a military person you have to have a mission, you have to have something that you are doing. The more idle you are, the more you are in your head, and the worse it gets.”
This, Fuller says, is his legacy, noting his dedication to service members and veterans, adding that after all of the bills are paid, the profit is split among organizations that help the military community.
Fuller said it’s been eight years now that he’s been learning the brewery process, and looks forward to learning even more about the industry.
“Six years ago, a doctor says to you: ‘You have two, three years tops to live,’ here you are, obviously double that timeframe, so what’s your drive? How do you survive something like that?,” asked FOX21’s Live and Local Morning Reporter Julie Baker.
“To be able to have something to leave behind; I don’t have kids, I don’t have a wife — this is my legacy… I wanted something to pass on,” answered Fuller. “So, this brewery is my future. When that day does come someday, I am turning [the brewery] over to my employees to carry on that mission.”
