MARTENSVILLE, Sask. - As students prepare to head back to class next week, a Saskatchewan boy is focusing his last days of summer on sales. Gus Fandrich has been serving up sweet treats and nostalgia all summer long from his Dickie Dee-inspired ice cream cooler. “I’m a big fan of ice cream,” Fandrich told CTV News. At 10 years old, the savvy businessman is too young to remember the Dickie Dee’s ice cream sellers of the 1980s. But he was fascinated by the freezer-on-wheels concept when he first saw it at a hockey game. “He was wondering what it was, so I explained to him they used to drive around neighbourhoods selling ice cream when I was a kid,” his dad Jason Fandrich said. With help from his dad, Fandrich created his own ice cream cart called Gus’ Sweet Treats, which officially took to the streets in May. “It is like a modern Dickie Dee bike,” Fandrich explained. The pair connected an e-bike to a freezer and a couple of cupboards that store ice cream treats, snacks and pop. It can hold about 200 ice cream treats and weighs about 300 lbs when it is fully stocked. “It would take me a while to just get down one street because I do not have the leg muscle to do it, so it is easier with an e-bike motor,” Fandrich said. Fandrich rolls through the streets of Martensville, Sask., a small city just north of Saskatoon, a few times every week. He attracts customers of all ages with a jingle he plays through a speaker. “Most of the adults that we come across are very excited when they hear the music,” Jason said. “It brings them right back to childhood.” Fandrich suspects he has visited every neighbourhood in the city at least once this summer. He hopes to continue sales until the snow falls. “(Customers) are super supportive and people will give lots of tips if you are a young kid,” he said. The soon-to-be Grade 6 student is saving up to buy new hockey cards, LEGO sets and a dirt bike. He initially hoped to make about $300, but his dad says sales are already “well over that.” “It can definitely get him some hockey cards and can definitely get him that dirt bike if he wants it,” Jason said. This is just Fandrich’s first summer doing business and he already has plans to expand. Over the winter, he would like to build more ice cream carts to sell to other small communities in Saskatchewan and Alberta. “I couldn’t be more proud of him,” Jason said. “He is a great kid and he has always been motivated.”
