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Meet James Karaginannis Buffalo, NY’s “Ice Creamcycle Dude,” man that pedals around the inner city neighborhoods selling ice cream to kids for $1 during the summer months.
He’s not delusional, he realizes that not everyone’s going to be able to afford that $1 fee so he takes care of the children who can’t.
For the children who can’t pay him $1 fee and he gives it to them for another kind of fee… he quizzes them on something like math or history and if the child answers correctly, they get an ice cream.
He told ABC News, “They love running up and saying, ‘Hey, can you ask me a math question today?'”
It was a blessing having this man giving the kids ice cream and he said that he can’t say “NO” to a child, but unfortunately, the eight cycles that he has couldn’t really afford to keep giving out free ice creams, this started to hurt them financially.
“We couldn’t ride around all day and give out free ice cream, but I also I can’t say ‘No.'”
And that’s when he decided to turn to his community for help.
They say that it takes a village to raise a child…
“We’re with the kids every day, we have a responsibility to them,” Karagiannis said, “They’re kids in our community; we have to help raise them right.”
He started a “pay-it-forward” program that is asking the people of the community to pay $1, the cost of one child’s ice cream cone and in return, they would receive a “Thank you” note from one of the children.
He said that he wants to take his ice cream to the “disadvantage” neighborhoods because not many other people go there for the kids.
“Everybody told me not to go there, and then I started going one block in and another block in, and I just feel like people have an irrational fear of the inner city, but in my experience I haven’t fount that to be true. The community is really strong. The children are all playing in the street and having fun,” Karagiannis said, “I’m having a lot of fun.”
And in regards to the donations, he posted this on Facebook too…
“I truly did not think we’d raise more than $500. Im [sic] afraid to look at the current total but it’s got to be over $6k and who knows where it’ll be when I wake up tomorrow morning.”
Via:abc
