Farmpark holds Ice Cream Weekends

The Lake Metroparks Farmpark dealt with the summer temperatures over the weekend by holding the seventh annual Ice Cream Weekend. The event which included an ice cream sundae for $1.00 was held over the course of two weekends, July 15-16 and 2223 as a way to celebrate National Ice Cream Month.

According to Farmpark event manager Andy McGovern, the Ice Cream Weekends actually originated from a prior a event held by the Lake Metroparks Farmpark.

“It kind of started, we had an old event called dairy days and it wasn’t working so well,” he said. “So, we thought what comes from

milk, ice cream was number one.”

McGovern notes that Ice Cream Weekends have become a summer staple at the Farmpark ever since.

Approximately 1500 sundaes were served last weekend, he said. The weather has left the event this weekend with a slow start, but it saw an increase as the weather cleared.

The Ice Cream Weekends are family friendly events just like all other events held at the Farmpark. And you can’t beat a $1.00 sundae, according to McGovern, who believes that the Ice Cream Weekends are one of the bigger summer events offered at Farmpark outside the Farmfest.

The ice cream event is one of the more popular ones, and McGovern recalls one year where they dished out over 3000 bowls of ice cream in one weekend.

The Ice Cream Weekends is a community sponsored event with all the ice cream donated by Pierre’s Ice Cream Company. The bowls are donated by Discount Drugmart and J.M. Smuckers donates the syrups for topping.

All proceeds from the weekend go to the education department.

In addition to all the regular Farmpark activities, a few themed activities were planned for the event such as: the Pierre’s Ice Cream slideshow, the Cow to Cone indoor play area complete with a snow machine, a milking demonstration where participants got to try their hands at milking a cow and ice cream making.

Joe and Maggie Swetch of Highland Heights brought their son, Indiana, 3, and daughter Eleanor, 6 months, to the Ice Cream Weekend and both agreed the event was great.

Trisha Valley of Valley City said the event was good and she enjoy it.

Parker Wolf, 6, of Mentor said it was awesome.

Mike Conway of Stow came with his nephew, Colin Conway, 4, of Meadeville, PA, thought the event was pretty cool.

“You can’t go wrong with ice cream,” he said.

KRISTI GARABRANDT — THE NEWS-HERALD Indiana Switch, 3, Highland Heights enjoys a bowl of ice cream during the Farmpark’s Ice Cream Weekend July 23.