Winners Crowned in Ashley's Ice Cream Contest

July 17, 2011, Guilford, CT—The kid-founded Connecticut-grown United States of Community Service (USCS) and  celebrated (July 17) in style when they announced the winners of their Create a Flavor, Change the World ice cream flavor project for charity in front of a crowd of kids and their parents at the Nathanael B. Green Community Center in Guilford.

The flavorful project was put together as a “very cool” way to shine the spotlight on five kid-centered organizations in five Connecticut towns while choosing an official ice cream flavor for this year's nationwide kid-powered USCS Make a Difference Day Almost-Sleepover event. Already, kids in 28 states have signed up to make a difference in their communities that day.

In a surprising twist, and their creators were crowned co-winners at the event. For their efforts, Nutella Chip creator 10-year-old Brennan Gollaher of Guilford will receive a $25 gift certificate from Ashley’s Ice Cream and Red-White-and-Blueberry creator 11-year-old Caroline Holmes from Greencastle, PA will receive a $25 gift certificate from her local ice cream store, Mikie’s Ice Cream & Green Cow. Both kids and their flavors will be featured on the www.uscsnow.org website.

“Getting kids involved in and excited about community service is what USCS is all about,” said Laurie Kenney. “The more we thought about it, the more we realized that USCS isn’t about kids competing against each other—it’s about kids working together to make a difference.”

“This project has shown that when a community comes together to make a difference, we’re all winners,” agreed Ashley’s owner Joe Ametrano. “And the biggest winners are the five organizations we’re supporting with this project.”

Joining the USCS girls (Delaney and Addie Kenney, Willow and Rosalie Coleman, Marlah Hohlfelder, Isabel Kessler and Sophie Marnin) and Ashley’s owner Joe Ametrano and co-owner Brian Anderson at the event were representatives of each of the five organizations benefitting from this month-long promotion: Suellen Heinrich, children’s librarian at The Guilford Free Library; Diane Surprenant, director of personnel and development at The Chidren's Center of Hamden; Linda Laucella, manager of the development office at The Connecticut Hospice; Maryrose Hoffman and other board members at Life Haven; and Melanie Hartmann from UCan2's LifeStraw project.

“Ashley’s was kind enough to donate their amazing ice cream for last year’s almost-sleepover event here in Guilford,” said Laurie Kenney, mother of USCS’s co-founders, 9-year-old Delaney and 8-year-old Addie.

“When the girls and their friends told Joe that they had bested 2,000 entries nationwide to win a National Make a Difference Day Award from Newman’s Own for that event, he told them right then and there that he would be happy to do what he could to support their effort to get kids in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. to host almost-sleepovers on this year’s Make a Difference Day, October 22—and he has: by working with us to spread the USCS word and make a difference in the lives of the kids and families being served by these five worthy charities.”

The two kid-created flavors will be available at all five Ashley’s locations through July 31 with all proceeds benefitting local child-centered organizations in those locations:

• Guilford Free Library’s Adopt-a-Book Program (Guilford)
• The Children's Place at Connecticut Hospice (Branford)
• Life Haven (New Haven)
• The Children's Center of Hamden (Hamden)
• Ucan2's LifeStraw project (Madison)

Donation jars will also be available at each location for those who’d like to contribute to these kid-centered organizations.