One scoop or two? Young entrepreneurs prepare for Canada Day grand opening

A group of young women will be opening up a new ice cream shop in downtown Moose Jaw on Canada Day.

The Good Scoop, located at 31 Main St. N., is being run by 10 young female entrepreneurs who are looking to make some money and also support Moose Jaw Transition House with a portion of the proceeds. 

The venture will be run similarly to Junior Achievement, in that it will operate as a non-profit while also giving back to the community.

Students taking part are from Vanier Collegiate, Central Collegiate, A.E. Peacock Collegiate, King George Elementary School, and online learning. Sask Polytech students also did some design and construction work.

Founder Jakson McAuley, a Grade 10 student at A.E. Peacock Collegiate, says they've been preparing the retail space for a couple of months.

"Things are coming together pretty good so far," she said. "We've passed health inspection and I think we should be smooth sailing for opening July 1."

Students involved in the project are McAuley, Rose Miko, Mitike Cridland, Josie Rogers, Ellie Rogers, Madison Marktanner, Ireland Guillaume, Mattaya Coupland, Kate Hansen, and Joyce Xu.

Joyce's mother owns Tara's Commodities and decided to let the girls operate out of the front of her store. Tourism Moose Jaw is also going to have a member in the space at times, to provide info to visitors.

The students plan to donate a portion of their proceeds to Moose Jaw Transition House.

McAuley mentioned the space needed a little TLC.

"Just about everything needed a little bit of work. Washing the floors, we needed a brand new counter, we needed to fix some storage stuff, make new sinks," she remarked. "A lot of it has actually been donated by people and we've found a lot of cheap stuff at Salvation Army and just going to places like that, which has been really helpful...It's actually come together pretty good. We've gotten a lot of help from people around us, which has helped."

In addition to ice cream, The Good Scoop will feature student-made merchandise such as keychains, t-shirts, hoodies, hats, and tote bags.

McAuley says the process of running a business has been "really incredible".

"I've learned more doing this than I think I've ever learned before. Seeing all of the struggles and how to work through them. When you have an idea of the way you want things to go, 90 per cent of the time it does not work out the way you want it to, and learning how to problem solve has been the most incredible part of this."

She revealed why they chose to support Moose Jaw Transition House, which provides services to those experiencing interpersonal violence and abuse.

"We chose the Transition House because we're a group of women and we wanted to support other local women and it just seemed like the most pressing matter that we wanted to work with them and help give back."

The group has received plenty of support from Tourism Moose Jaw, the City of Moose Jaw, and the Moose Jaw Transition House.

The grand opening for The Good Scoop gets underway at noon on July 1. The ice cream shop is expected to be open from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily to start, but that could change in the future.

If you would like to assist the students in any way, you can check out The Good Scoop on Instagram or Facebook or email thegoodscoop31@gmail.com