Holiday weekends are typically big for boozing.
That means the Montana Bar Fairies will make early morning trips to parking lots of bars around the state to reward those who chose not to drive home drunk.
While the nonprofit’s origins trace back to a 2023 tragedy, the mother-daughter founders have tried a different route to address drunk driving: They reward people who steer clear of it.
Their roots are in Montana, but the goal is to expand to Wyoming and other Western states.
Heading out well before 6 a.m. most weekends, these fairies place a $5 gift card to a local coffee shop on the windshield of vehicles left overnight at bars or restaurants.
The cards also contain a photo and a brief story of someone killed in a DUI-related crash.
Though the topic of drunk driving is one they take seriously, the duo opted for a more lighthearted approach with the choice of being “fairies.”
“I was thinking about the tooth fairy, but with drunk driving instead,” said Carli Seymour, the younger of the cofounders. “It felt a little magical.”
Finding Magic From Something Tragic
Finding magic from something tragic is where the story of the Montana Bar Fairies began.
Early one morning in 2023, Seymour got an idea when she saw the frost on the vehicles parked at a bar in Kalispell, Montana.
That frost was a subtle, but significant, clue that someone made a decision after a night of carousing — the sort of decision that, had it been made by another driver, would mean her brother, Bobby Dewbre, would still be alive.
After celebrating his 21st birthday at a bar in nearby Columbia Falls that March, Dewbre and two friends were crossing the highway when Dewbre was struck and killed by a repeat drunk driver.
The driver’s blood-alcohol content level was more than twice Montana’s legal limit of 0.08%.
Losing someone so young and unexpectedly is life-altering for any family, Seymour said.
There were some cruel ironies surrounding her brother’s death, which happened after he celebrated turning the legal drinking age and while on his way to a safe ride home.
When she saw those cars that had sat in a bar parking lot overnight, Seymour felt compelled to act.
She briefly considered writing a thank you note in the frost, but such a note would be fleeting, and she wanted a more tangible way to express her gratitude to responsible drinkers.
At the time, Seymour was working as a barista at Copper Mountain Coffee and wondered if the owners might be willing to donate some gift cards so she could buy responsible drivers a coffee — and include a photo and a bit of a story about her brother.
“That would be really cool,” she recalled thinking at the time.
The mother-daughter duo of Beth McBride (L) and Carli Seymour (C) founded Montana Bar Fairies following the tragic death of their son and brother, Bobby Dewbre, on his 21st birthday in 2023. (Courtesy Carli Seymour) 
When a 21-year-old Montana man was run down by a repeat drunk driver, his mother and sister decided his death would mean something more than being another statistic. Now the Montana Bar Faries use tragedies like theirs as a call to end drunk driving. (Courtesy Carli Seymour) 
Bobby Dewbre served as the inspiration for Montana Bar Fairies, as well as the DUI reform known as "Bobby's Law," which changed how DUI offenders can be charged if they kill someone while under the influence. (Courtesy Carli Seymour) 
When a 21-year-old Montana man was run down by a repeat drunk driver, his mother and sister decided his death would mean something more than being another statistic. Now the Montana Bar Faries use tragedies like theirs as a call to end drunk driving. (Courtesy Carli Seymour) 
When a 21-year-old Montana man was run down by a repeat drunk driver, his mother and sister decided his death would mean something more than being another statistic. Now the Montana Bar Faries use tragedies like theirs as a call to end drunk driving. (Courtesy Carli Seymour)
An Idea Brewing
The idea for Montana Bar Fairies started brewing in Seymour’s head about a month or so after Dewbre’s death.
In those early weeks while the family was crying and grieving, a gift of a Keurig coffeemaker, complete with a bunch of different flavor pods, provided some solace.
“I never would have thought to do that, it never would have occurred to me,” Seymour said.
It’s perhaps fitting, then, that coffee became central to the duo’s eventual advocacy work.
Today, there are fairies who make early morning deliveries across Montana, in cities in Washington and Missouri, and they’ll soon come to North Carolina and Ohio.
Some Wyomingites have also contacted Seymour and her mother, Beth McBride, about starting chapters in the Cowboy State.
The fairies have distributed thousands of gift cards since their first outing on New Year’s Day 2024, and their goal is to lighten up that “walk of shame” some people might feel when they return to their cars the next morning.
The formula isn’t perfect.
Some gift card recipients may work an overnight shift or ditch their cars because they’re feeling amorous. Even so, the cards help spread awareness, Seymour said.
“We don’t want to come from a punitive place or shame anybody,” she said. “It’s not shameful to leave your car, it’s not shameful to change your behavior when you have new information.”
Bobby’s Law
Dewbre’s death has changed so much in the lives of the mother-daughter duo, thrusting them into advocacy work that has extended beyond Montana Bar Fairies.
As Seymour and her family learned, contending with a long investigative process that accompanies drunk driving deaths can also be especially grueling for the victim’s loved ones.
“It’s really confusing and disorienting and complicated, as crazy as that sounds, when somebody is killed by a drunk driver,” Seymour said.
Worse yet is when the sentence doesn’t seem to fit the crime.
Because Dewbre and his friends were crossing the highway outside of a crosswalk, the repeat drunk driver was only charged with reckless driving that carried an 18-month sentence.
When McBride learned that the driver couldn’t be charged with vehicular homicide, she embarked on a mission to change the law.
Earlier this year, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed into law a DUI reform bill known as “Bobby’s Law.”
The law created a new criminal offense, aggravated vehicular homicide while under the influence, that applies to any driver in Montana who kills someone if their blood alcohol concentration is more than double the legal limit.
It also carries a minimum three-year prison sentence.
“My mom is the hardest-working person I know by leaps and bounds,” Seymour said of McBride.
Combating A ‘Huge’ Issue
Even if it’s been hard work at times navigating the nonprofit world, something that’s new to both Seymour and McBride, finding volunteers has been much easier.
“We were blown away by how many people were willing to help,” Seymour said.
Perhaps that’s because drunk driving is so ingrained in the culture of a place like Montana, where open containers were only banned 20 years ago, that people have been affected in various ways by the issue.
And while Dewbre was the catalyst for starting Montana Bar Fairies, the duo wanted to give other families the opportunity to share photos and stories of their loved ones.
“That’s super important to us. It’s not just Bobby, it’s a huge issue,” Seymour said. “So many people in our area have been affected, it’s crazy.”
Inspiring Others
That her brother gets to live on through this advocacy work is likewise crazy to Seymour, and something he probably would’ve gotten a real kick out of, she said.
While he might be a bit mortified by how many people have called him handsome online, Seymour said Dewbre would probably think it’s “really cool” that he’s inspiring others.
One woman who received a gift card from the fairies has his photo hanging on her refrigerator as a reminder to her kids not to drink and drive.
“I feel so fortunate that this has all worked out in a way that I get to talk about him to people and introduce him to people who may not have met him,” Seymour said. “He was an unbelievably special person.”
One gift card at a time, Seymour believes the fairies are doing something magical.
“Hearing literally anyone — even just one person — say that they used to drink and drive and don’t anymore, it’s worth all the work we put in,” Seymour said.
