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06/18/2019 12:00 AM

Island Avenue Kindergarten Class Earns an Ice Cream Treat


Island Avenue kindergarten students read their persuasive postcards. Photo by Zoe Roos/The Source

Shortly before the end of the school year and the closure of Island Avenue Elementary School forever, a class of kindergarten students received a special treat from Ashley’s Ice Cream and the town’s Economic Development Commission (EDC).

Island students in Mrs. Maggie Torrison’s kindergarten class gave persuasive writing a spin, creating postcards that highlighted Madison businesses, like R.J. Julia Booksellers and Ashley’s Ice Cream. The postcards caught the attention of members of the EDC, who decided to visit the students with a little treat.

“I want to tell you guys why what you have done is important to us,” EDC Chair Ryan Duques said to the students. “We work together with a bunch of other volunteers to help promote Madison as a place where people want to live and people want to open up businesses…What we are really excited about is when you guys did some persuasive writing in your post cards, you were actually doing economic development for the town. That what we try to do—we try to come up with persuasive ways to talk about all of the fun things that we have going on here in Madison.”

The students wrote about reasons to visit various businesses in town and the students did an excellent job of keeping their messages clear and to the point:

“You should go to Ashley’s ice cream,” said Owen Carroll. “There are pictures, it’s good, and it’s delicious.”

“You should go to R.J. Julia,” said Aurelia Collins. “You get books, you get toys, and you can buy books forever. It is fun there. I love it there. They have dog books and kids books.”

“You should go to R.J. Julia,” said Morgan Chiat. “You will learn how to read. You can buy books and sometimes they read books to you. They have a cafeteria.”

“You should go to Ashley’s Ice Cream because it’s delicious ice cream,” said Gavin Ufland.

Ashley’s Ice Cream rewarded the student’s hard work with a small ice cream party. Ashley’s also plans to put up some of the student postcards in its downtown Madison location.

Superintendent of Schools Tom Scarice chats with Island students as they dig into a cup of Ashley’s Ice Cream. Photo courtesy of Ryan Duques