No Booze Branding: A Movement Rooted in Mental Health, Community, and Hope

Spring brings branding season. An end to calving season. An end to social isolation and an end to the mud, snow and sleep deprivation that weighs down ranchers coming into spring. It’s a reminder that for humans, like baby calves, green grass and sunshine can cure a lot of ills.

What it shouldn’t be a reminder of is loss and heartache. 

Unfortunately for Kara Uhrig, the founder of No Booze Branding, spring brings back memories she wishes she didn’t have. 

Uhrig grew up on a ranch near Hulett, Wyoming and now lives near Spearfish. She lost her brother, Wace Snook to suicide just days before his branding. He had been struggling with alcohol. “Had he had more support in his sobriety, he may have found a better way out,” she said.

That personal loss became the inspiration for No Booze Branding, a grassroots campaign asking participants to commit to just one day of sobriety during branding season. “One day,” Uhrig said. “If that feels good, then do another day. The hope is that we will create a reason to be sober and more support for those who need it.”

Uhrig has a long list of reasons to be sober, many of them names of friends and family who lost the battle against alcohol addiction. While she recognized that alcohol was becoming a problem for herself when she was in college, she knows not everyone sees when the “fun” becomes the “problem” and it gets increasingly difficult to shake your head when someone is buying the next round.  

To further normalize and support sobriety, the movement encourages wearing a purple scarf, bandana or neckerchief as a silent gesture of commitment. “This makes it easier for people not to have to explain themselves for not drinking,” Uhrig said. “And it shows you are there to support others who are choosing sobriety.”

“If we know somebody is currently struggling, or ourselves are struggling, it’s having some support or knowing there’s some support. I know people don’t like to talk about it. Just wear the scarf and you’re sending the message that you’re sober and are there to support the people who are sober. You can communicate that without speaking that.”

After Uhrig started No Booze Branding and designated the purple scarf as the silent sign of sobriety, she was spring cleaning and came across one of Wace’s neck scarves. 

It was purple.

“Now, if that ain’t a sign, I don’t know what is,” she wrote on the No Booze Branding Facebook page.  

“It’s helping spread a message to those who are still here fighting to let them know there is an another way. A better way. And if you listen to the signs, you will be guided to what God has intended for you.”

While she is working with No More Empty Saddles, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing suicide in agriculture, to raise money to provide support for those who need it, she is more interested in changing the culture. She wants to make it not just okay, but normal and healthy to not drink, and to pass that on to the next generation, who will learn from their parents. What they learn is the change she’s working for. 

“Pick a day,” she said. “Commit to that day of sobriety this spring. Let’s spread the word and get this movement going. We can’t afford to lose anyone else.”

Alcohol and Mental Health: The Quiet Crisis

In her 17 years working in probation and parole, Uhrig saw firsthand how addiction and mental illness intertwine. “It just spirals. Alcohol isn’t resolving anything—it’s drowning it out,” she said.

Cheryl Wales, a Licensed Professional Counselor for nearly 40 years, from Sundance, Wyoming, supports the initiative wholeheartedly. “I have seen so many heartbreaking results from substance abuse over the course of my career,” Wales said. “If alcohol disappeared from the face of the earth, the need for my profession would decline dramatically.”

This personal experience is backed by research. Studies have shown that individuals with anxiety or depression are more vulnerable to developing alcohol use disorder, and that alcohol often worsens mental health symptoms. People with mental illness experience more harmful effects from alcohol, even at similar levels of consumption. People with substance use disorders are also at significantly higher risk of suicide.

“Drug abuse is prevalent and incredibly damaging, but alcohol is still the most destructive in terms of the number of individuals and families whose lives are severely impacted by its abuse,” Wales said. 

Real People, Real Stories

Ginger Tomlinson, from North Dakota, offered encouragement on the No Booze Branding Facebook page. Her story isn’t unusual. 

“I’d like to think I’m a pretty smart person but I really made some crummy decisions. Alcohol started out as a curiosity when I was a teen. It is such a lifestyle and a commonly accepted thing to drink in North Dakota, to not drink felt weird. So it became something that socially made me more comfortable, until it didn’t. By the age of 21 I had already been in treatment and alcohol had become a problem very quickly. This led to experimenting with other substances.”

She finally made a change for real when her son called her to pick him up from his dad’s and he asked if she’d been drinking. She had. “It absolutely crushed everything in me and to this day it brings a pain in my heart. I had had beers and I was ashamed and realized how much I was failing not only myself but my family. I needed to get it together.”

Her journey to sobriety wasn’t just about stopping drinking, it was about healing. “My family was very encouraging. I found people that started sharing their stories and others who started asking me about mine. Loved ones started making changes in their own lives and we have started to build relationships again. But not everything is solved by quitting, it takes a whole lot of work and it’s so worth it!” she said. “If you think alcohol is an important part of your life, you may already be too preoccupied with it.”

Joe Blankenship knows the feeling all too well. A former rodeo pickup man from Bowman, North Dakota, who’s been involved in agriculture his whole life, he’s been sober for 19 years. His motivation to get sober came from the fear of losing his sons. “They were 2 and 5 when I sobered up,” he said. “I was blacking out all the time, doing things and saying things I didn’t remember. I just knew if I didn’t do something, I’d lose them. And rightfully so.”

Blankenship began making intentional changes—driving himself to brandings so he could leave if the drinking got out of control, surrounding himself with other sober friends, and maintaining a firm boundary around his sobriety.

“A lot of people respected that I didn’t drink,” he said. “I still have fun. I’m still me. I just don’t drink.” He’s also committed to being someone others can lean on. “All of my 19 years sober were done one day at a time. Maybe it’s one hour at a time. Whatever it is, it can be done.”

Blankenship has seen too many funerals caused by alcohol. “So many families just talk about the good things, but don’t talk about the drinking,” he said. “That might actually help someone if we were more honest. That’s what I admire about No Booze Branding—they tell the truth.”

A Culture Shift in Motion

Uhrig hopes to transform branding, ranching and rodeo culture into something more supportive and inclusive, places where families feel safe and those struggling with addiction feel supported. “Brandings should be about teaching kids to care for cattle, not about drinking all day,” she said. “This is a small step that can make a big difference.”

At its heart, No Booze Branding is about choosing compassion, showing up for those we love, and creating space for change. “Pick a day. Then pick another. And another,” Uhrig said. “It starts there.”

How You Can Help

• Wear a purple scarf or headband to events. 
• Buy a NBB scarf/headband from Rae’s Rags out of Midwest, WY at  https://raesrags.com/products/no-booze-branding-wildrag 
• Post a photo and share why you support the cause, tagging @noboozebranding
• Start a conversation in your community
• Donate $5 via Venmo or PayPal to @nomoreemptysaddles for each sober day you commit to
• Cover the $5 pledge for others in your branding crew or donate whatever amount you wish 
• “If you can, donate $5 and one day—minimal for the life of a human being,” Uhrig said.

For more information or to get involved, visit No Booze Branding on Facebook or Instagram.