Handel’s to show its appreciation to customers

Staff report

On Saturday, Handel’s Ice Cream customers will be able to buy their favorite flavor on a cone for $1.

The annual customer- appreciation day will be at all eight Mahoning Valley locations, noted Jim Brown, chief operating officer.

The effort is to thank people for their patronage and contributing to the 65-year-old local franchise’s growth, Brown explained, noting that Handel’s also has stores in Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Virginia Beach, Va.

Last month, the company opened a location in Los Angeles, he said.

“If it wasn’t for the local people, we wouldn’t be where we are,” Brown said, adding that July is National Ice Cream Month.

The appreciation day is the last Saturday in July. The 2008 effort, called the Youngstown’s All Heart campaign, was set up in part to allow a portion of each purchase of a pint or quart of ice cream to go toward helping Joe Kaluza, the former KFC manager who was shot and paralyzed from the neck down during a robbery in March 2008.