The Frozen Lion, our student run ice cream shoppe, operates out of the Dutra House kitchen in the courtyard. Sno-cones are $2, and ice cream is $3.
It opens at noon on the first Wednesday of each month, as follows:
September 4th, October 2nd, November 6th, December 4th, January 8th, February 5th, March 5th, April 2nd, May 7th, and June 4th.
You may also want to take a look at a newsletter article from when the shoppe first opened in the Spring of 2011:
A couple of months ago, the after school activity choices at our campus got a whole lot tastier.
The Frozen Lion, a homemade ice cream ‘shoppe’ made its debut on a sunny Tuesday afternoon in mid April. Lines filled the courtyard of the Dutra House for more than an hour, as students and parents waited excitedly for a taste of such flavors as ‘Coco Loco’, Lemon Rage’, and ‘Razzle Dazzle’.
This successful business venture is the brainchild of four older students in the Upper Elementary (Marrone) class- Ana Boisvert, Kristen Yee, Riley Burke, and Michelle Ho. In the midst of a case of the winter doldrums, the girls were looking for a science project to cheer up. They settled on a few ice cream recipes to pass the time, and while they waited for their first batch to freeze, they found themselves thinking up possible names for a theoretical shop. The fun of name combinations (an early frontrunner was KRAM Ice Cream Company, an acronym of all their names) turned into weeks of planning for a real business, a process which even included finding investors.
For all you budding entrepreneurs, their process looked a bit like this:
– Make a list of what needs to be done
– Decide on everyone’s position within the ‘company’
– Look up flavors and recipes
– Gather resources
– Write a persuasive letter to potential investors
– Get busy!
The girls worked quickly- all told there was only a month and a half between the idea and the grand opening. Such an undertaking requires a lot of meetings, and at first they were meeting almost every day. Now they meet once a week to discuss challenges and plans. Each of them holds multiple roles within the business- based on their own natural talents- and so they all pull equal weight on their own in addition to the group projects. They make an effort to learn each aspect of the business, as well. There’s managing to be done, recipe development, publicizing, artistic direction, and cashiering and accounting, among other things. They even researched health and safety laws, and made staff t-shirts. The investors’ (mostly parents, of course) funds are sufficient to see them through the entire two month project, and any profit above and beyond the payback will go into the classroom. The class will meet and decide how to divide up the profit- pets, field trips, and end of the year parties are a few of their considerations.
The Frozen Lion was a much greater success than they anticipated, and that comes with it’s own set of challenges- this has been an incredible learning experience for them. The working conditions are not ideal in the tiny Dutra kitchen, so organization and good communication are a must. They were able to create more space by placing a board over the stove. The freezer gave out on them during the first day, and they remedied that situation with an ice chest and dry ice (and another persuasive letter was crafted for the repairs). They also ran out of supplies during that first rush, and it was quite an exhausting challenge to keep up with the customers and keep things clean. At the end of the first day, they were all very tired, and very hot, but they agreed that the experience was ‘exhilarating!’ They each had their own favorite part of the day: Ana and Kristen enjoyed making the ice cream the best, Riley enjoyed the satisfaction of the customers, and Michelle actually thought that the rush was fun.
It is important to the girls to involve some of the younger students in their class, so that this wonderful venture will hopefully remain a part of our community after they are gone. Stop by and enjoy a delicious homemade treat with your friends!