The Daily Campus

Issue date: 2/9/09 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Carolyn Wilke Students brave the cold to load up on ice cream and toppings Friday afternoon.

So what's your favorite flavor?

"Peppermint, definitely," said Frank Celeste, a 2nd semester pre-pharmacy major. "And the mint chocolate chip is right next to it. It's like a mint explosion in my bucket."

All down the length of the snaking, chattering line, hundreds of students asked themselves that difficult question on Friday afternoon. Perhaps harder - and less delicious - to answer, though, was another: Why are we standing outside in the freezing cold to eat even colder ice cream?

For some, the answer was self-evident: "It's worth it," said Evan Childs, a 2nd-semester accounting major. "A bucketful of ice cream for a dollar? Incredible."

With a single greenback and the will to withstand the cold, students could load up a bucket with a giant smorgasboard of UConn Dairy Bar flavors, complete with toppings on tap. Despite the wait - which stretched to an hour or more - students eagerly gathered outside outside the Student Union in a line stretching from Hillside Road past the Information Technologies building.

"It's bad now," said Kevin Fahey, Senior Associate Director of the Department of Student Activities, "But by 1:30 or so, students will be able to more or less walk right through."

Even at its busiest height, students weren't deterred by the weather.

"[The One Ton Sundae] is a UConn tradition," said Shannon Patrick, an 8th-semester economics major. "I'm a senior, and I've never been, so I'm staying here. Mostly for the Birthday Cake [flavor]."

Frigid students could warm up with free hot chocolate inside the Student Union lounge.

This year marked a milestone for the One Ton Sundae.

"It's been 30 years since the first [Sundae]," said Fahey. "The first time we did it, it was just something different. You know, it's Winter Weekend, what are we gonna do - we've got this rowboat, how much ice cream can we fit in it - and it turned out to be about a ton. It was more of a curiosity at first."

Now the Sundae has become a UConn tradition, featuring horse-drawn carriage. And as if the weather wasn't quite "cool" enough, a three-piece jazz band rocked - a far cry from the event's "toppings in a rowboat" origins.

"30 years later, we're a little bit more sanitary," said Fahey.

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