Washington D.C. Volunteers Scoop Ice Cream
To Help Homeless Youth

What could be better than helping homeless, runaway, and street-dependent youth?? Helping them while eating FREE ICE CREAM!

Ben & Jerry’s has long been recognized not only for selling wicked good ice cream, but also for leading the way as a responsible corporate citizen through its tireless support of charitable organizations. Each April, Ben & Jerry’s hosts Free Cone Day at all of its stores across the country. They invite local charities to come help them scoop their ice cream on that day, and permit the volunteers to solicit donations from customers (since they’re not paying for their ice cream!).

On Tuesday, April 25th from noon to 8pm an enthusiastic contingent of about 15 StandUp volunteers descended upon Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop in Washington D.C.’s Dupont Circle to help staff scoop free ice cream cones, pass out StandUp For Kids flyers, collect signatures on our Turn Purple Campaign petition, and solicit contributions from customers. Hungry customers queued up down the block all day long, some waiting in line for up to 40 minutes for their free ice cream. On a warm, sunny spring afternoon, a good time was had by all as crowds wolfed down Chunky Monkey and Cherry Garcia cones while volunteers Jade Verity and Wendy Erlanger jiggled Ben & Jerry’s buckets filled to the brim with spare change and dollar bills. In total, the Washington D.C. chapter volunteers raised over $1,200! Further, they got the message out--that child abuse and the resulting crisis of youth homelessness are issues that need to be addressed now--to over 2,000 people!

Next year the D.C. Chapter aims to target not one, but two Ben & Jerry’s locations on Free Cone Day. Ben & Jerry’s puts on Free Cone Day each April at all of its shops around the country. For more information about the Washington D.C. chapter, or about participating in next year’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s, please contact us at WashDC@standupforkids.org. Happy scooping!!!