The San Diego Festival of Beer returns to downtown Friday, Sept. 9. Now in its 17th year, San Diego’s oldest beer festival brings crowds that have poured into the streets of the Core Columbia district since the beginning of the local craft brew revolution that catapulted America’s Finest City into a world-class beer destination. The festival is organized by the nonprofit San Diego Professionals Against Cancer (SDPAC), an all-volunteer organization made up of professionals from various fields who joined forces to put on the event. Since its inception, the annual festival has raised more than $500,000 that has gone toward cancer treatment and research in San Diego. “We do it all to benefit cancer causes because it touches everyone’s life at some point,” said Candace Brown, president of SDPAC and a director of finance for Prudential California Realty. “The festival is a wonderful opportunity to savor the craft breweries and benefit a cause right here where the people who are going live.” Brown said the idea for the festival came when she and some friends, including SDPAC Vice President Rachel Cano, a deputy district attorney for the county of San Diego, were at a beer festival in San Luis Obispo. With most fundraising benefits at the time more formal affairs, the group thought it an opportunity to create an event that would support a good cause while tapping the resources of a different audience with a more casual event. Receiving guidance and participation from some of the up-and-coming brewers in the area, including Chris Cramer of Karl Strauss Brewing Company and Greg Koch of Stone Brewing, now both flagship Southern California craft breweries, the event continued to grow and expand. “We were kind of rag-tag back then,” said Brown. “It’s been great to watch all these grow.”  About 70 breweries are expected to be serving up 150 types of beer at this year’s festival, which will also feature food, wine and live music. Some of the beneficiaries from the festival include the pediatric cancer patients at Rady Children’s Hospital, where the SDPAC has donated upward of $200,000 to purchase equipment for children with cancer. “The fight against childhood cancer is a long and difficult battle, said JoAnn Auger, RN and supportive nurse coordinator for the Rady Children’s Peckham Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. “Anything we can do as a community to support these families is so important.” Auger, who started working at Rady Children’s 17 years ago after her own daughter was treated there for leukemia, said SDPAC donations have aided in opening an MRI center at the hospital and helped purchase specialized equipment that makes it easier to deliver children prescribed pain medicine. Posted at the entrance of the festival is a list in memory of those who lost their lives to cancer. “It helps all of us and our volunteers remember why we do the hard work we do,” said Brown. The San Diego Festival of Beer will be held from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. and is a 21-and-older event. Entrance is at Columbia and B streets across from the W Hotel. For tickets or more information, visit www.sdbeerfest.org.