Greetings, and welcome to this week's edition of Mad Maggie's Email Newletter -- affectionately known as "The Scoop".

Well, things are definitely heating up. We had out busiest three day weekend ever over the Memorial Day weekend. We seem to have been cursed by the Weather Gods over our first few seasons, as we've had quite a few rainy days on dates when we planned to be super busy. Fortunately, this year the weather couldn't have been better, and we did super sales all three days of the weekend.

[ Naturally, this good stretch couldn't continue, and we've had another 5 days of rain this week. I ought to stop talking about the weather! ]

On busy days, our biggest problem has been getting enough team members to fill up the schedule. I tried not hiring many new team members this spring, as I wanted the returning members to be able to get as many hours as they desired without competing with "the new kids". I feel I owe a huge debt to these kids who have stuck with us over the years, so I want them to work as much as they want.

Unfortunately, with high school graduations, confirmations, end of the year school functions, etc., we sometimes get caught short. This was the case on the Friday night of Memorial Day weekend, when one of the kids missed his shift, and I found myself alone with my niece, Melissa, for what turned out to be a busy Friday night shift. We worked hard, I'm pretty sure Melissa slept well Friday night, and hopefully we kept up with the rush well enough that people didn't bail out of line to find another place with faster service. (Melissa went home one happy girl though, as she didn't have to split the tip pool with anyone!)

We've got a few new kids in training now (more about them below), so hopefully the lack of serving team members is a temporary thing. Please bear with us if you get to the store and find we're understaffed -- it really can be a balancing act to get the right number of kids on the team without having too many to keep busy!

A Pint for a Pint!

Mark the date: August 4th. Mad Maggie's will be sponsoring a blood drive with the American Red Cross. The "Bloodmobile" will be on site, and taking donations to help those in need of blood and platelets. (This event is still tentative, as we have to verify that we can actually clear an area large enough to satisfy the registration requirements -- I'll followup in the next newsletter.)

I'm a frequent blood donor -- I always figure that donating blood is a reasonably foolproof way of ensuring that my donation will go to help someone. When I write a check to a charity, there's always that little nagging voice in the back of my head wondering if the money is *really* going to make its way to those in need. I always investigate the charities I donate to, but with all of the news reports of organizations abusing financial donations, there's always a little doubt. I figure there's not a lot of chance that my blood donation is going to go anywhere but to someone who needs it!

I frequently drag along a bunch of ice cream to give out to the volunteers, nurses, and donors when I donate, and the Red Cross organizers seem to know me at this point. So I was happy that they were eager to accept my idea of having a blood drive at our stand, with all donors receiving "A Pint for a Pint" -- donate a pint of blood, get a free pint of any flavor from us as a small "Thank you".

Hopefully this helps entice more people to donate. If you've never donated in the past, I urge you to try. It's really not a painful process -- there's a slight discomfort, but it's short-lived, and I always get through it by telling myself that the tiny pinch that I feel is nothing compared to the pain that some of those who really need the blood are enduring. So give it a try, and feel good about yourself for helping some others in need. Here's a special offer: Tell us you're a first time donor, and we'll double your reward, one quart of any flavor of your choice!

Dust off Those PJ's

Yep, it's that time again: Schools are getting out for the summer, and it's time for Mad Maggie's Summer Pajama Party! This year, we'll again be giving away a free small cone to anyone who shows up dressed in their pajamas. Both North Reading and Andover school systems have Friday, June 23rd as their final day of classes, so the event will be held that night from 6pm through closing. Come on down and have a laugh at everyone else's funny pajamas.

Once again this year, I've sent a letter to the Victoria's Secret people, letting them know that their lingerie models are more than welcome to come on over to collect a free cone. I'm sure Adrianna, Giselle, and friends will all be first in line at 6pm. (I told them that Tyra isn't welcome -- I saw what an evil little shrew she was in that "America's Top Model" show. We'll have none of that back-biting at Mad Maggies!)

Remember the rules: *REAL* pajamas only -- no shorts, sweats, t-shirts, or other assorted apparel, even if you *do* sleep in them normally. We want to see real pajamas, preferably something with little yellow duckies or pink sheep or frogs on them. Fuzzy slippers are always welcome.

If you're one who sleeps in the nude, please try to remember to actually wear pajamas on this night, as you won't get a cone for showing up in your birthday suit. (We'll take pictures though, if you do, and they'll end up on the internet.)

And my serving crew has asked me to please leave my own pajamas at home this year -- they claimed that having to work beside me while I was wearing my red, wooly, one-piece qualified as cruel and unusual punishment.

Father's Day Cakes

Don't forget to get your order in now for your Father's Day ice cream cakes. We've been doing a great business in cakes, and I need all the orders I can get to keep Maggie busy. You can call in a cake order, or just stop by the store and ask for an order form.

We generally need at least a couple of day's notice to get a cake ready, but we've been known to turn around an order in as little as 12 hours in an emergency situation. Still, the more time you can give us, the better, as filling the cake blanks, frosting it, then decorating it, is a time consuming process.

Coming Soon! Mad Maggie's at the 'Shoe

We're delighted to report that the newly renovated Horseshoe Grille, on route 28 in North Reading is planning to offer deep-dish ice cream pies from Mad Maggie's on its summer menu.

If you're not familiar with "The 'Shoe", it's been a fixture in North Reading for years. Back in my youth as a North Reading "Townie", it was "the place" to go on the day we turned 18 (way back then when the drinking age was lower) to celebrate this rite of passage.

Back then, the Horseshoe was a tiny little local watering hole, known more for the motorcycle gangs, live bands, and assorted locals hanging out at the bar. Nowadays, owner Pat Lee has done an amazing job of renovating the location into an upscale, elegant, fine dining establishment. Much as I hate to see a place "go yuppie", the Horseshoe seems to have done it right, as the place is comfortable, relaxed, yet clean, friendly, and has a great menu.

Plans are for us to provide a different flavor of ice cream pie each week of the summer. They'll be serving these on their summer menu, hopefully with a nice mention of our little store.

If you haven't ventured over to try the Horseshoe, I urge you to give it a try -- the pulled pork sandwich is my personal favorite, and Maggie and I frequently stop in after closing the shop at night to share a huge plate of nachos with pulled chicken. I'm getting hungry just writing about it...

Flavor News

We had a little mixup last week, as one of my production helpers made a batch of Big City Brownie, while forgetting to actually add brownies to it! We did what any enterprising business would do when finding they've made this type of mistake: We renamed it as "Chocolate Walnut Fudge". Not many customers fell for this subtle marketing trick though, so we ended up putting it on special to get rid of it quickly and clear up some room for the real "Big City Brownie".

We've had some great reactions to our Sorbets. I travelled to the University of Wisconsion to take a course on sorbets this March, and it seems to have paid off, as our sorbets have been consistently good (in my not-so-humble opinion, anyway!) this season. I found some nice fresh strawberries a couple of weeks back, and made a Strawberry sorbet with them. It sold out fast, and we've had quite a few requests for more, but unfortunately it's been hard to find good, sweet, fresh strawberries. Luckily, I was at Costco this weekend picking up supplies, and they had some wonderful strawberries. I kept the kids busy during this past rainy weekend cleaning berries, and we now have another batch of this nice tasting sorbet in stock. Get it while you can!

Costco also had some tasty, ripe, mangos, as well as fresh blueberries and blackberries, so I bought a couple of cases of them, and we also now have Mango Sorbet and "Very Berry" sorbet -- blueberry, blackberry, and strawberry. Try them out and let me know what you think of them!

Staff Profile

While I get to know "the new kids", I'll avoid picking on any one of them, and just write about our hiring in this section. I'll get back to using this space to tease them a little as I get more familiar with them!

Anyway, now that schools are starting to get out, we're seeing more traffic, so we'll be adding a few new team members to help keep up with the lines. We've already added three new bodies: Whitney, Brendan, and Gina.

Whitney was the first to get in an application this winter, as she sent hers in around the 1st of February. I always like kids who take the initiative to think ahead about what they want to do for the summer. The fact that one of our best, team leader Jenny, gave Whitney a strong recommendation pretty much sealed the deal, and Whitney started working a weekend shift last week. She was actually scheduled to start on Mother's Day, but that was the day of the floods, so we had to push her back a week -- didn't want her to come in for training and end up wading out of the store!

Whitney attends Middlesex Academy, in Concord, MA, and her school year is already over, so she's a welcome addition to the team as she has no school commitments. The biggest issue with Whitney so far is getting her to understand the difference between a pint and a quart -- these kids and the metric system!

Brendan attends Central Catholic, and was also an early applicant, getting in an application in early April. I actually hired Brendan to help out on the production end of things, as I wanted someone to train to make slushes and some of the "easy" flavors to take the time burden of making these off of the shoulders of me and Janae, my main production helper. Brendan has done a great job of learning our system, and he's ready to branch out from the production team and onto our serving squad to help fill in unstaffed shifts as needed. He's proven to be a hard worker in his production duties so far, and I have great confidence that he'll work just as hard on the serving team.

Whitney and Brendan teamed up to work the busy Memorial Day afternoon shift, and they managed to keep the lines moving all day, so they look like they're going to be great additions to our team.

Regina also got her application in early, also is a Central Catholic student (just finishing her Freshman year), and she had the added advantage of being the younger sister of last year's team leader, Janelle, who was one of our best and one of my personal favorites. I used to call Janelle "the energizer bunny", as she seemed to love working when it was busy. Janelle assures me that her little sister is just like her, so I've got high hopes for Gina. She's jumped right in and picked things up fast, so it looks like the good working habits are a familiy trait (got to remember to ask Gina about younger siblings for future years' teams...!)

So far, these three have stepped right in and seem to be excellent additions to our serving squad. If you find yourself being waited on by one of the "new kids", please be gentle with them -- it's a tough job, they're all young, but they're trying hard! A word or two of encouragement from the customers does wonders for their spirit!

Newsletter Coupon

Come to the store, mention that you're one of our cool, connected, newletter readers, and whoever is serving you will first sing (a capela) a rendition of Debbie Gibson's "You Light Up My Life" for you before scooping your order. Make sure to tell them to sing loudly, so that everyone in line behind you can hear them as well.

Just in case my capable serving team doesn't agree to this ingenious little marketing promotion, you could also just print out this page of the newsletter and we'll take $2 off any quart of ice cream to take home with you.

Try to get them to sing first though. Sometimes they're a little shy and need to be prodded into it.

OK, that's enough for this week. Time to get to the shop and watch the rain cascade down on us. They're claiming that it *might* start clearing on Saturday, so we'll keep making ice cream and hopefully be ready for the big rush when the sun finally emerges.

Thanks for reading!