| Every year for the past six years Lappert's Hawaii in Hanapepe Town has invited a class from one of Kauai's schools to come to their manufacturing facility and have fun learning how to make ice cream. "The students have so much fun making their own crazy flavors of ice cream," remarked Mary Pratt of Lappert's Hawaii, "and it's really rewarding for us to be a part of the experience with them. It's a win-win for everyone." The past two year's events have been transformed into fundraisers for the respective school's classes. This year it was Island School's turn -- they invented "Chanilla."
Mrs. Connie Kakalia's second grade class had just completed a unit on how to make ice cream. She explained how they were selected this year, "Makali'i, one of the students in my class (son of Mary and Terrill Pratt, owners of Lappert's Hawaii Ice Cream and Coffee along with Michael Lappert) thought it would be a cool idea if his class was selected." She added, "The class thought it was a great idea, so Makali'i asked his parents and the date was set."
Prior to the actual field trip day to Lappert's, the students had to decide on the ingredients for their special fundraising ice cream which they named: "Chanilla." "Chanilla" is best described in a song that the class invented and sang during the course of their ice cream making adventure. It goes something like this:
"Chanilla, Chanilla, chocolate and vanilla, if you eat too much, you'll act just like Godzilla!"
So, on Thursday, April 22, 20 excited 2nd-graders, Mrs. Kakalia, and volunteer mom Julynn Morvis, boarded the Island School bus for their day of learning, fun and ice cream making, singing their Chanilla song. They arrived at 9:00 a.m. and were greeted by the Lappert's ohana. "They were so excited to be here and we really enjoyed spending the morning with them," noted staff member Melinda Correa. The students were divided into two groups and were provided with hair nets and gloves providing the group with additional entertainment. One group went into the ice cream side, the others went into the pastry making facility. Once each group completed making their unique goodies, they switched places.
The pastry group made large sheets of chocolate chip cookies to be mixed into the ice cream being made on the other side. Using gloved hands they slapped and pressed the dough mixture into the sheets with peels of laughter in between. The ice cream making side was provided with seven ingredients to mix into the vanilla bean ice cream which the class had selected as a group. As chips and nuts were flying, and kids were wrangling for position in front of the fudge bowl, they made their own quarts of ice cream from the following ingredients: chocolate chips, mini peanut butter cups, Snickers pieces, fudge, chocolate chip cookie dough, macadamia nuts, and miniature marshmallows.
Here are some of the "recipes" for each student's individual take home quart of ice cream:
Aidan Dungan: "I put cookie dough, Snickers pieces, marshmallows, chocolate chips in mine."
Kyrie Johnson & Caitlyn Oshiro: Their concoction had "peanut butter cups, fudge, and cookie dough."
Hailey Lord: "I like cookie dough, macadamia nuts, peanut butter cups,and Snickers pieces in my ice cream"
Kealoha Ota: "My ice cream had Mac nuts, marshmallows, fudge, Snickers pieces, and peanut butter cups in it."
Natassia Yee: "I put marshmallows, peanut butter cups, cookie pieces, and chunks of cookie dough in mine."
Besides vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate fudge, the "Chanilla" ice cream also contains chocolate chip cookie pieces, mini peanut butter cups, Snickers bar pieces, and cookie dough cubes. "Chanilla" will be on sale at the Koloa Lappert's Hawaii Ice Cream & Coffee location until the 15 tubs made have all been sold. Proceeds from the sale of "Chanilla" go directly to Mrs. Kakalia's second grade class and will be used to fund their May Day program and end of year excursion.
Last year's flavor -- "Kolohe Crunch" -- was invented by the Koloa Early School class. Mary Pratt quipped, "Last year we ran out early and had to make more. "Kolohe Crunch" was a very popular flavor." She added, "This is a really fun event for us to do -- the whole staff participates. We basically shut down operations for the day at our manufacturing facility in Hanapepe where all of our ice cream and pastries are handmade daily. Our Lappert's ohana makes sure that the class has lots of fun and learns something about how to make ice cream, team work, and the food service industry. We wish we could afford to do it more often."
Lappert's Hawaii provides premium ice creams, coffees and pastries at several locations on Kauai, Oahu and Maui. We invite you to stop by the Old Koloa Town location to support Island School's second grade class, and try a scoop or two of "Chanilla". But hurry, if it's anything like "Kolohe Crunch," it'll be gone before you know it. |
