Grove City College has a special relationship with many of the local businesses, but Sweet Jeanie’s is one of the sweetest. Sweet Jeanie’s is a local ice cream shop that opened in the spring of 2015. It is owned by a local couple and they quickly became very involved with the College. I have personally worked with them twice now, and have heard about several other partnerships.
The first time I worked with Sweet Jeanie’s was in the spring of my sophomore year. For my Sales in the Startup class we were assigned a project in which we had to use our sales skills to raise money for a charity that we had worked with throughout the class. My group approached the owners of Sweet Jeanie’s and asked if they would be willing to work with us so that we could sell cups of ice cream to professors to gift to their classes during the last week of the semester. Sweet Jeanie’s sold us their homemade ice cream at their cost and gave us space to scoop the ice cream into plastic cups which they provided for us. They then stored the ice cream cups for us as we slowly delivered the cups over several days. On the evening that we scooped the ice cream into cups they were very hospitable, despite not making any profit from us, and their employees asked us several times throughout the evening if they could get us anything or could help us in any way.
The second time that I worked with Sweet Jeanie’s was to host a Residence Life event. I am an RA, and as such I have to plan and host several programs throughout the year. I partnered with the owner of Sweet Jeanie’s, Jeanie, and two local Lularoe consultants to discuss women in business. Sweet Jeanie’s provided us with an ice cream bar and again only charged us the cost of the food – they even brewed us an urn off coffee for free! Jeanie spoke at the program about her experience as an entrepreneur and let us use their space free of charge. Again, everyone was incredibly hospitable and offered to help us several times.
Sweet Jeanie’s is a great example of the College’s relationships with local businesses. While the environment at Grove City College is welcoming. loving, and all around Christian, so is the local environment. So often I hear about feuds between college students and local people in areas with other colleges, but this is not the case in Grove City. The College and the local community work together to make Grove City an all around great place to live.
Be sure to stop by and visit Sweet Jeanie’s next time you’re in Grove City!
