If the thought of chocolate, peanut butter, pretzels and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups makes your mouth water, then you will love Yarnell’s Ice Cream’s flavor made specially for the #MySearcy Small Business Revolution. The flavor was developed by two Yarnell’s employees who wanted to celebrate Searcy’s newfound fame from the television show “Small Business Revolution: Main Street.”
Mitch Evans, vice president of sales and marketing at Yarnell’s Ice Cream, came up with the flavor’s name which encapsulates the ice cream’s goal into a simple title: Bringing Everything Together.
Evans noticed how the community was coming together for this revolution, and he wanted Yarnell’s to be a part of the celebration. He brought together multiple flavors into one to showcase Searcy’s coming together as multiple businesses into one, unified community.
“Yarnell’s is too big to be considered a small business, but we still wanted to be involved with the community,”Evans said. “We saw everyone else becoming involved, and it was just like everyone and everything was coming together for one purpose.”
The flavor was available for tasting at the pep rally welcoming the producers of “Small Business Revolution: Main Street”on Thursday, Jan.17. LizHowell, Harding University’s vice president of alumni and parent relations, was one of the participants who was fortunate enough to try a scoop.
“The combination of all the flavors just comes together. Absolutely perfectly. They nailed it,” Howell said. “I did not expect it to be that good, but it truly exceeded my expectations.”
Howell echoed Evans by emphasizing that the ice cream flavor did a fantastic job of showing how Searcy was coming together for this iconic chain of events. Howell was present to see Amanda Brinkman, host and executive producer of “Small Business Revolution: Main Street,” and her reaction to Yarnell’s new ice cream flavor.
“I could see Amanda, and I could tell she was genuinely touched by the ice cream,” Howell said.
Junior Cooper Longley experienced the community-binding flavor the same night and said that even the taste-testing of the flavor brought the community together.
“All the people in the community were there trying the flavor with us too,” Longley said. “I looked around and noticed the difference between the people and how we were all eating the same ice cream flavor. It was a great representation of the idea that Yarnell’s was aiming for with this ice cream.”
The community agrees the ice cream flavor is revolutionary in taste and in its metaphor for the community’s diversity. Unfortunately, Evans said the special ice cream is not currently for sale because of the costliness of the materials required to combine multiple flavors into one.
This one-time event serves as a reminder of how everyone has a part in the creation of a community, especially in small town Searcy, Arkansas.
To learn more about Deluxe’s Small Business Revolution visit their website here.
