By Bob Green, Carstairs Bancroft United Church

Our Sundaes on Tuesdays program started seven years ago as a way for members of our congregation to reach out into the community, providing a service to local youth. A couple of congregation members got together at coffee one Sunday after our service, the concept was discussed, and all felt it was a great idea.

The town of Carstairs has a large splash park located across the street from our church’s front entrance. It operates in the summer months and accommodates mostly young children from the very early ages of even 1 or 2 years old, to some in their teen years. In addition, there is a playground with swings, slides and other pieces that children play on.

The plan was that from mid-June, to late August, we offer free ice cream to children who are at the splash park on Tuesdays between 1:30pm and 3:00pm. Initially, the ice cream was supplied by the volunteers, with cones, and small cups for the younger children. We had a small freezer moved inside the church’s front door where the ice cream is stored. We open the doors and serve the ice cream to the children, and some parents, off the front steps of our church. The costs for most of the ice cream and supplies are nowcovered by our congregation’s community outreach program funds.

We put up a volunteer signup sheet in our coffee area at the church, and volunteers sign up to work a 1.5-hour shift on a particular Tuesday to give ice cream to children. We usually have 3 or 4, sometimes 5 volunteers each Tuesday.

Our numbers of children varies from week to week. We have had as many as 180 kids show up on a Tuesday, but average between 60 and 80 on any day during the 7 weeks we run the program. There are 3 or 4 day care centers in the community, and often the complete class from a center comes out for ice cream. This could mean 25 or 30 kids, often ages 4 to 5 lining up to get their treat. If the weather is not very nice on a particular Tuesday, we do not run the program.

The program is very popular, and not that difficult to administer and work. Many of our senior members get a great feeling of seeing all these young kids get a treat from them.