The 2026 Bryce Thomson Scholarship with Sue Kloter

In this episode, we have our yearly catch up with Sue Kloter, of Kloters Ice Cream Barn and the Scholarship Committee of the Association.

The largest scholarship process we have had in the association's history is currently open and taking applications. This one is a must listen to get the good oil on a great member benefit.

To get info and to apply click here:

• https://icecreamassociation.org/page/Scholarship

For information about the North American Ice Cream Assoc, and how you can open and grow your ice cream business with a community that will support you, go to https://icecreamassociation.org/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hey there, folks. Welcome to the Ice Cream Podcast. It is the official podcast of the North American Ice Cream Association where we are all about ice cream people, helping ice cream people. If there was ever a program to help ice cream people, those who need it the most, uh it's the Bryce Thompson Scholarship. And of course, this is kind of our uh yearly get together on the podcast with Sue. Sue Cloder, who uh is the chairperson of the scholarship committee. How are you, Sue? I'm well. Good afternoon, everyone. Also runs a cracking uh ice cream business in Connecticut. Do you want to tell us a bit about that, Sue? I don't think we've ever spoken about your uh your day job.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Well, I'm one of the little guys. I simply have a walk-up window. Um, we our family business, we sell sheds, so it is a shed. And um we put a lot of ice cream through those windows, and um, it's been very successful. So I'm very fortunate there.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Yeah. Uh Sue, we get together every year, we talk Bryce Thompson. And uh why don't we, before we jump into this year, take us take a journey back in time to way back in November in West Palm Beach, Florida. What a what a convention that was.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

That was that was excellent, excellent convention. It in a way it seems a long time ago, and in a way, it's time goes by so fast.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

I know, that's cool. Um now your light shines at the supplier party. This is this is really where the rubber meets the road so far as scholarship donations. It's really where the most of the uh the donations and the funds that go into the Bryce Thompson Scholarship are generated, uh, as well as a good time. That's always a balance between a good cause and a good time. Do you want to just give us an overview of uh how the auction went last year and how that spills into this year?

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yeah, the the auction was it was a lot of it was very lively, let's say that. It was the 80s theme, and um, there was a lot of neon and and lighting, and it was it was really good. Um and the auction did very well. We want to thank every member and supplier member who donated. You know, when you you know shove a t-shirt into your suitcase for the auction, we really appreciate it. All those things help. And the auction live and silent brought in $77,000. So that was incredible. Also, um, prior to the end of 2025, we received another donation to the scholarship fund of $5,000. So this year in 2026, we are able to give away $82,000 in scholarships.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

It's a record. We've never given away that scholarship. I should say also, and I just want to reiterate, thank you, to the smallest donation and the largest donation. Yeah, as you said, a t-shirt, a badge, a gift card, something that goes onto those silent auction tables. It's it's the little things, it's the people who are willing to bring product along and the people who are willing to bid on them. Sometimes absurdly amounts of money for I go back to the 2020 pair of ice cream socks. I don't know what Jill paid for them.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Though truly, sometimes you're you could be coming away with much more than a pair of socks, you know. There, there are, you know, of course, lots of ice cream memorabilia and all that stuff, and there's also ice cream mix and toppings and sometimes machines and all those things. Um, but there could be like a getaway. I'm actually, my husband and I are gonna go see Wes and his wife down in uh Wilmington because we uh were um awarded a trip last year. So, you know, you never know.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

So plan now. Um, a plan to bring something along, suppliers listening, uh, plan to donate something of worth. Uh, and also um as an attendee, uh, visit the cash bar first, invest in some lubrication. Um, the auction tends to do a lot better when the cash bars are flowing. Um, I I do want to add in there, Sue. I was just on the website checking. There actually is a tab there uh down the bottom of the scholarship page where you can make a direct deposit into the Bryce Thompson Scholarship. So for those that that uh bumped that up over the $80,000 mark, um, thank you. And there's an opportunity to continue to do that throughout the year and at convention. So $82,000 this year. Tell us how that's going to break down.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

So we will be awarding 26 scholarships. The highest dollar amount is $6,000. We have one of those, and then we have three that are at the $5,000 mark, four at the $4,000 mark, four more at the $3,000 mark. We have $10 $2,500 scholarships and four $2,000 scholarships this year.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Wow, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Those numbers have have kind of bumped up as everything gets more expensive. You know, we used to give away $1,000 scholarships, you know, 20 of them. And now we've just said, you know what, let's still have a good amount of scholarships. 26 is a high number. Um, but a thousand dollars only goes so far these days. So we've bumped that up so that the dollar amounts are a little bit larger.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah, very true. So the the application is open now, so people can jump onto the website. If you go to the uh scream ice creamassociation.org, we'll put this down in the show notes as well, but um, and then hover over member benefits, and then the drop down will come and you'll see the scholarship there. Um so you can apply there right now, straight away, and it closes on September 9. So we're kind of, I guess, halfway through the process here. Uh, we get a lot of questions every year about well, what what are the scholarships judged on? Um, and I think it's probably good to review that just so people know hey, how does the scholarship committee kind of weight uh some of the decisions they make in their uh in voting?

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Yeah, so um our our main focus, I would say, when we review the applications is financial need. However, do not not apply just because your financial need isn't that great, because we have had many students get scholarships and you know their their need is kind of middle of the road, but they have um stood out to us for a number of reasons. Maybe life situation, maybe academic excellence, uh, maybe something they wrote about in their essay that really set them apart from all the other applicants. So it's not just financial need. Um, speaking of the financial need part, we do need your federal student aid form. That is a federal document. It is not coming from the college or university. So we look at financial need with the assistance of the FASFA form, which is the federal student aid form.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

And we mentioned that we've actually had a few inquiries this year about well, is the college form enough? So it's good information to say that no, it's not VASFA form, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Yeah. Uh we look at academic excellence, we look at the student's essay. There is a prompt that the student needs to write an essay based on their experience in the ice cream industry, whatever that is. And then there's also the letter of recommendation from the employer or manager. So those things kind of um we have a scoring system, and then there's seven reviewers, all those get averaged together, and that gives us our top 26 uh uh scholarship winners.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

So what for someone who perhaps is applying for the first time, are there guide points on the essay? What what's what what generally is included in that essay?

SPEAKER_00 8:46

So there is a prompt and it it speaks, it asks the student to elaborate on their experience in whether they're an ice cream scooper, they're working uh making ice cream, things like that. How has that shaped their future goals? Have they had a mentor along the way? Has uh certain customer influenced them in some way? You know, they can kind of elaborate um for their own story and uh, you know, how the ice cream industry has impacted their lives.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Right. I I don't know whether I can say I'm thankful that I don't have the job of reviewing scholarships because the scholarship committee, I think, average out as as much hard work as most of the other committees in the association, it just happens in a very short period of time. Um and I'm imagining you see a a wide swath of um essays. Um I I would I the reason why I brought that up is just to kind of you know follow the prompts, but if there's anything specific or something that's impactful in your life that's um that you're involved with or how working in the store has impacted your life, it's always good to put that in.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

There is also a spot on the application where you can just um elaborate if there's any special situation in your life that you would like the reviewers to know about and really take advantage of that if you have a special situation, if uh it could be anything, truly. Um and just if you want us to know, then tell us, and that that can impact you know our score numbers. So sometimes there's um extra medical needs going on in the family that impact financial situations, or you know, one parent is sick, you know, things like that. So we encourage applicants to really just tell us what's going on in their lives so we know them better.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yeah. I will say too, you know, we talk about the qualifications uh of what you need to do, and it's all on the website. Obviously, your store or the business that you work for needs to be a member of the association because it's one of the great member benefits. But if you are if you are listening to this podcast and you're not a member of the association, you can join the association today and still have time to get this inform out to you information out to your employees. Um I I we talk about member benefits and for the princely sum of currently $400 for the year. This is one of the great member benefits. Now, you know, not everyone that applies may get a scholarship, but even just being a part of this community that's re-investing and strengthening this next generation of white screen people, um, it's very gratifying. So um if if you're listening and you're not a member, we'd love for you to join us and participate in this program and all the other programs. Um we get questions, Sue, every year about outside the US.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

And we do a lot of research every year. There's a lot of background work happening about our members, being the North American Ice Cream Association, uh either north or south of the border. Um, can you give us a little uh feedback as to the research that's going on there?

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Yes, so currently our situation is we work with the Columbus Foundation out of Ohio and they manage our funds, and they are the ones that confirm the student is attending a certain college or university, and then the money goes directly to that college or university. According to the IRS, that money can only go to colleges within the United States. So we can't currently send funds to Canada or Mexico. We have really done a lot of research on this. The Columbus Foundation is working to help us find another uh association that can help us. And if we if we want to award a scholarship to someone that lives in Canada and goes to school in Canada, we would like to do so. Um currently, we hope that that there might be progress in 2027. But I just wanted people to know that we are working on it. We have some wonderful Canadian members that donate, that attend convention, and we would just love to help out their employees. So we are we are working on it.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Yeah, yeah. And then I can, I my hand of the square, Sue brings it up, uh, you know, most months in our executive committee meetings on hey, this is the process and this is what we're working on. So um we do want to make sure that all of our members get this opportunity to get this great member benefit. And uh behind the scenes, there's there's movement happening. It's probably not going as fast as we would like, but uh there's movement nonetheless. Um, Sue, what else do we need to cover here about the scholarship?

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Um so, like I said, the funds go directly to the college or university. So the student doesn't actually receive the check, it goes to the college or university. It can be used for tuition, books, lab fees, room and board, that sort of thing. Um, it just needs to be used within one year of issue. So um a couple other questions that came. Um if you haven't, as a as a member and you want to have a you want to let your employees know of the scholarship opportunity, there is a link on the website that shows a download for a poster that you can put up in your shop and it has a QR code on it that your your team members can just scan that QR code and it brings them up all the information they need. Um, I was asked recently um if you applied and won a scholarship previously, can you apply again? And the answer is yes. Every year it's a new group of students that apply, and even if you've won a scholarship prior, you can apply as long as you fit the other criteria.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

That's good. That's awesome. It's interesting. I I saw a video recently on the difference between can and can't. Because in Australia, can is can and can't is can't. But here, can and can't are kind of the same, same the sound. So you can C-A-N reapply.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

I'll just I just reiterate again for people who might be north of the border. Um so uh please pass on our thanks to the crew there that judge this. It's interesting, it is a lot of work, but there are people every year on the board and even off the board that say, I would like to be involved in this process. It is a process that is it's heavy duty, but it's it's enriching and life-changing, and it's quite emotional. Uh, yeah. I I know um, Sue, you wear your heart on your sleeve a lot of times when you're reading out these scholarship announcements because you and the committee know just some of the the background of some of these students and the great need. But you know, we've had store owners sitting at our table when uh results are read and there's been emotion.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Because these shop owners just love their their employees and they want to help where they can.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

And having the ability to be able to, as part of the association's membership, you know, take a little bit of that financial load off someone in their uh crew is just just so gratifying.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Yeah. Oftentimes, you know, we can see our our employee, the stress load, and you know, home life is not peaches and cream. And and uh, you know, the stress load of how am I gonna pay for my next semester is very real.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yeah, very true. Well, look, um, as I mentioned, the registration process is open currently, as you uh hear this, closes on September 9th. We always play around a little bit with that close date because um end of the month tends to be somewhat problematic if it falls on a on a weekend. Um, sometimes when you press send, uh something will happen and I need to call the office. Uh, right around that time, also is a Labor Day weekend. Um, and so we've kind of had it on the Monday of the Labor Day weekend when no one is in the office here and oh, I've got some problems. So this is the weekend after the Labor Day weekend. So we would recommend if you have time now, start the process now, work through it now. We often, as we look at the numbers, look at a very high percentage of applications that are started, but very few are finished early on. And uh just take the pressure off yourself and um and uh do that when you can. But uh as I said, September 9th is the cutoff, and we'll obviously be promoting that and making sure that our members know uh specifically when that cutoff is and and uh uh and what they can do to make sure they get that application in.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

There's always a race at the end to I gotta get my application in. So one thing I want to just throw out there that um the Columbus Foundation um has given us is a specific email. If you're filling out your application and you know you have a question a spit specific about the application, um certainly you can email the office, we can try to help you. But there's also a direct email, it's scholarshipmanager at ColumbusHenfoundation.org. So you can um email questions to that email and they will get back to you usually within 24 hours. Don't expect a quick response, but um some of the questions we can answer uh in the office, but some of them are a little more complicated and need to go directly to them for a short answer.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Yeah. And wherever you're listening to this, we'll put that email in the show notes. We've had a really long and successful relationship with the Columbus Foundation. They've really supported this process very well. They're experts in the process of running both the process of where our funds go and how they're managed, but also making sure that the process runs a little bit more seamlessly. A couple of years ago, we went from that paper application to everything online, and it was a game changer for a lot of our uh the old timers still found it a little bit hard, but we figured that if most students can uh save something as a PDF and upload it, then the rest of us should be able to as well. Uh thank you, Sue. Well, we look forward to seeing you in uh Palm Springs.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Yes, that sounds lovely.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Any reveals on what you'll be wearing at the uh at the it's good, it's the the supplier party is cone cella themed, so it's um we've mentioned it before. It's kind of bohemian chic um flower child. Um I don't know. Is there something in the wardrobe, Sue, that you're already looking at, or will you be?

SPEAKER_00 20:58

I am sure there's not something in the current wardrobe. Right, right. So I am very, very hopeful that I will be able to attend convention this year. My son and his wife are expecting twins right around that time. And I'm I'm excited, but I'm nervous that I might miss convention. But my goal is definitely to be there and enjoy it all.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Is it possible that they can come with and then we'll have another association first, twins born at the convention. We'll set up a little maternity suite. We got room on the floor.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

No.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

No. Well, congratulations, Sue. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Thank you for we're excited.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Um, again, all of the links will be here. And uh, yeah, please reach out if you have any questions, comments, or concerns about um not only the Bryce Thompson Scholarship, but anything about your membership. We'd be happy to help you. Thanks again, Sue. We'll talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

My pleasure. Take care.