Making A World of Difference
Celebrating 15 Years of Scooping for Charity!
For the past 14 years, the Park Potomac community and a committee of dedicated volunteers helmed by Bruce and Margo Fonoroff have planned, coordinated, and executed the Ice Cream Social for Charity. This completely volunteer-run event helps prepare Montgomery County students to go back to school by equipping them with brand-new donated backpacks from the community to be distributed to families at the Interfaith Works Essential Needs Center. Over the course of 14 years, the Ice Cream Social has contributed more than 19,000 backpacks to the IW campaign!!
This year’s 15th anniversary event aims to be another great celebration of community togetherness. Local rock band the Rock-A-Sonics will be performing live during the event. There will be ice cream from Carmen’s, local vendors to discover and of course, the very popular door prizes. Guests who bring a donated new backpack to the event will receive a ticket for the door prize raffle. Bring the whole family to enjoy this event and make a difference in our community!
Learn more about this amazing event and how to get involved here.
The Ice Cream Social for Charity was born out of the Park Potomac neighborhood’s desire to help the community in a way that would not only bring neighbors together but create positive change for those in economically strained situations. Retirees Bruce and Margo bring a sense of purpose, passion, and professionalism to the project. Margo Fonoroff spent 30 years working in the Montgomery County Public School system, many of those years serving as a school principal. “I remember watching students bring their books and school supplies to school in grocery bags,” Margo stated. This memory inspired the idea of collecting backpacks and donating them to members of the community in need. “A friend introduced us to Interfaith Works. They had had a positive experience donating items there [IW Clothing Center or Essential Needs Center] and knew it was a center that gave directly back to the community,” shared Bruce. Bruce and Margo have seen firsthand the impact these backpacks have on our clients. “A backpack might seem like a small thing, but it really makes a world of difference. It gives students confidence and helps them feel prepared to go back to school, proud, excited, and ready to learn” Margo said.
The Fonoroffs and their planning team have adapted and grown the event along with changes in the community over the past 14 years. “When we started the event, it was very small, and we collected about 150 backpacks. Then last year in 2022, we brought the whole community together, we had entertainment, vendors and of course our door prize raffles. Last year we collected over 3,400 new backpacks!” shared Bruce. Not even a global pandemic could stop this event from serving the needs of students. In 2020 and 2021, the Social became a socially distant event and still managed to collect over 5,000 new backpacks for students. Bruce said, “We couldn’t have kept this going without the dedication of this community. This event is entirely volunteer run, and the motivation is knowing that these backpacks are making a real difference to these students.” This year’s campaign has more than 18 sponsors, most of which are businesses located in and near the Park Potomac community.
Interfaith Works is incredibly grateful to the Park Potomac community and to Bruce and Margo Fonoroff for their years of dedication to helping us provide pathways to stability for everyone in Montgomery County.
Please support IW’s back-to-school campaign to help us let families know that “We’ve Got Your Back!”