Who is hungry for a little — or a lot — of ice cream? The Nashville Route 66 Business District is hoping thousands of community members have a hankering for the sweet treat on Saturday, May 9 as it looks to establish a new Guiness Book of World Records record by creating the world’s longest ice cream sundae.
The current record of 1,772-feet was set in Poinciana, Fla. in 2014. Shauna Swantek, director of the Putnam District Library and member of Nashville Route 66, said the plan is to have 1,800-feet of ice cream, chocolate toppings and cherries running down Main Street.
“We feel very confident it’s going to happen that day,” Swantek said of the World’s Record. “What we really need is people to come and help us eat the ice cream and to celebrate.”
Swantek said MOO-ville Creamery is providing enough ice cream, at cost, for 7,000 people, although the goal is to get at least 4,000 to attend the event and help eat ice cream. To help cover the cost of the ice cream, toppings, tables and troughs (which will hold the ice cream scoops), Nashville Route 66 is selling special spoons imprinted with the date and Route 66 logo. Spoons are available for $1 in advance in several locations throughout Nashville or can be purchased for $2 the day of the event.
People who purchase spoons in advance are encouraged to take pictures of themselves with the spoon and post it on various social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with the hash tag #gotspoon or #nashvillemi. From those photos, a king and queen of the event will be selected.
Louisa Westendorp, of MOO-ville Creamery, said they have prepared 432 gallons of vanilla ice cream. Sysco Food is providing 7,200 ounces of strawberries and 3,600 ounces of chocolate syrup for the sundae.
“It’s kind of exciting that everything is coming together,” Westendorp said. ‘We’re going to have 192 people to put it together — 48 groups of four people. It seems like everyone is pitching in.”
The event is meant to get residents engaged in the Nashville community and came as the result of Route 66 members and community members’ attendance at a Barry Community Foundation event earlier this year. The group came up with the top idea at the event, earning a $500 grant to use as seed money to get their project off the ground.
“We have a team of amazing business owners,” Swantek said. “Nashville Route 66 Business District is 44-members strong.”
Many of those members will be on hand Saturday, May 9, setting up more than 200 tables, end-to-end down Main Street, beginning at Good Times Pizza traveling south to Dollar General. The street will be closed for the event, and parking will be available behind businesses along Main Street. Shuttles will also run from Maple Valley High School.
Set up begins at 11 a.m. with spoons down at noon. For more information, find Nashville Route 66 Business District on Facebook.
