We received word that Ben & Jerry would be holding a 30th Birthday Party, complete with FREE Ice Cream cones, Tuesday, April 29th from noon to 8 p.m.
Yet the e-mail came to us from Hunter Rose, who holds the title of “Ice Cream Czar” in Plano. Where does one train to be an “ice cream czar?” Has the title been passed down through a line of succession or was it an assassination of the former Czar?
Intrigue has never run this high for ice cream alone.
Here’s what Ben & Jerry’s sent us:
As Ben & Jerry’s celebrates its 30th anniversary across the globe, the socially-minded ice cream maker, with the fun and funky flavors, asks what better way to share the love? They’re giving it away.
No, this is not one of those Internet pranks that makes you send ten emails to your friends for a free pair jeans. This is as plain and simple as vanilla. “Jerry and Ben started their first Free Cone Day as a thank you to their customers,” said Hunter Rose, the Ice Cream Czar of the Plano Ben & Jerry’s located at the Northwest Corner of Preston & Plano Parkway. “It’s cool,” added Rose with full pun intended, “we get to continue the peace, love and FREE ice cream tradition every year right here in Plano.” Free Cone Day is Tuesday, April 29th, 2008.
The Plano Scoop Shop has partnered with celebrities and the Collin County Children’s Advocacy Center. Caralee Gurney, Community Educator for the Collin County Children’s Advocacy Center explains the partnership, “We have partnered with Ben & Jerry’s for Free Cone Day for 4 years now and it keeps getting bigger and better.” April is Child Abuse Awareness Month and the Collin County Children’s Advocacy Center participates in the venue to help make people aware of the realities and dangers of child abuse in our own community. Rose adds, “Ice cream and kids go hand in hand. The Collin County Children’s Advocacy Center is the best partner we could wish for on Free Cone Day. They bring in the volunteers and together we fight child abuse.”
The ONE Campaign is partnering with Ben & Jerry’s nationally this year to help put an end to global poverty. People are encouraged to join Ben & Jerry’s and ONE this year at www.one.org/benjerry/. The Plano Ben & Jerry’s will additionally be handing out free ONE bracelets to anyone that orders ONE Cheesecake Brownie, a special flavor created just for the partnership. “The ONE bracelets are a great way to create awareness at a local level. We will continue to give these out with our new flavor until we have no more… but we have a lot of them,” explains Rose.
Certainly you can try one of your old favorites such as the legend-dairy classic Cherry Garcia, Phish Food or Chocolate Fudge Brownie. However, if you’re looking for a little something new to tickle your ice cream funny bone the company is introducing a few brand new flavors to bring joy to your belly and soul.
Coconut Seven Layer Bar — What can we say, except we know you’ll go coconuts for our latest and greatest flavor, based on the popular dessert: coconut ice cream with coconut & fudge flakes, walnuts & swirls of graham cracker & butterscotch. This is a treat solely for our Scoop Shop fans, as it is the only place in the world that you can get this flavor!
Imagine Whirled Peace™ — Continuing in a long lineage of rock and roll flavors, we’re honored to introduce Imagine Whirled Peace. John Lennon imagined a world without war, and asked us all to “Give Peace a Chance.” We’re proud to partner with Peace One Day to act globally and take one step closer to making our planet one of peace and love.
ONE Cheesecake Brownie™ — This top-testing new flavor is a decadent cheesecake ice cream with cheesecake brownie chunks. The amazing thing is the taste is only the half of it! We’re partnering with ONE.org to “make poverty history.” To find out all the campaign info, visit ONE.org/benjerry.
Cake Batter — This flavor combination takes the cake! Yellow cake batter ice cream with a chocolate frosting swirl. The perfect flavor to help blow out Ben & Jerry’s 30 candles!
Not only is Free Cone Day a chance to get a free scoop of ice cream, it is also considered to be quite a party. “Celebrities will scoop out free cones from 12 Noon to 8PM right here on the Northwest Corner of Preston & Plano Parkway,” said self appointed Ice Cream Czar, Rose. “Every year Free Cone Day is our biggest and best party.” There’s always great fun and surprises at your neighborhood Scoop Shop with local celebrities as guest scoopers, worthwhile social mission partners like Collin County Children’s Advocacy Center, music and other entertainment happening throughout the day so make sure you make it down to enjoy all of the Free Cone Day fun.
“Since we are partnering with the Collin County Children’s Advocacy Center and the ONE Campaign, we wanted to keep it real this year. Therefore, it was only appropriate to have reality television stars participate as well in our Free Cone Day, explains Rose. “In addition to our fantastic celebrities participating throughout the day, we have reality stars from American Idol, Top Chef and Iron Chef America scooping it up this year.” The Ice Cream Czar is referring to American Idol Nikki McKibbin, Top Chef Casey Thompson and Iron Chef Kent Rathbun. They and other celebrities will scoop ice cream, take pictures and sign autographs throughout the day.
Celebrity Scooping Schedule:
12 – 2PM 102.9FM Street Team and Remote
1 – 2PM TBD Celebrity Host from 570 KLIF
2 – 4PM 106.1FM Street Team and Remote
2 – 3PM Big Al Mack from Kidd Kraddick Show
3 – 4PM PISD Superintendant Doug Otto
3 – 4PM PISD School Board Member Missy Bender
4 – 6PM Dallas Stars Ice Dancers
4 – 6PM Iron Chef America Winner and owner of Abacus & Jaspers Kent Rathbun
4 – 6PM Top Chef 2nd Place Winner and Shinsei Executive Chef Casey Thompson
5 – 6PM American Idol Season One 3rd Place Winner Nikki McKibbin
5 – 6PM Plano Mayor Pat Evans
5 – 6PM Collin County Commissioner Phyllis Cole
6 – 7PM Autograph session Nikki McKibbin
In 2007, Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops gave away more than 1 million free cones worldwide! For you to eat that many scoops, you’d have to eat more than 416 ice cream cones each hour for every day of your life if you lived to be 100! You’d also be practically guaranteed to get an ice cream headache.
Now that you’ve got the scoop you know where you can get the scoop! See you April 29th at the Northwest Corner of Preston & Plano Parkway! If you have any questions, call 972-380-COWS.
