As with most everything I have done for the past fifty plus years, SAMMY POOLE'S ICE CREAM SANCTUARY evolved into an outreach ministry. When I sang for the folks at Noonday Campmeeting in Longview, Texas, I began taking an ice cream freezer with me. Each afternoon, I made ice cream for that evening's fellowship - after sevice. That, along with ice cream shipped via UPS to a lady with breast cancer in Kentucky, a family in Massachsetts who lost their mother, and a lady in Connecticut celebrating a special birthday, made me aware that there can be a ministry to people in this special way.

It has been my delight to serve many gallons of ice cream to players and fans at the US Disc Golf Championship over a period of years. Our friend Larry Ford whose last months were filled with opportunities to enjoy a 'Hug from Heaven' as he was able to eat my homemade ice cream. Everywhere I go, ice cream is never far from my thoughts. "Doctors, lawyers and indian chiefs," so to speak, have kept me filled with joy as they, too, have been on the receiving end of my 'ice cream express.' Nursing homes, policemen, pastors, firemen, and hundreds of others - all, eating and enjoying some of the 119 flavors I have cranked out.

One night I couldn't sleep, so I headed for my computer and began putting together a recipe book containing 66 of my recipes. Filled with pictures of family and friends, plus recipes from Sammy's files. All make 6 quarts, all start with a basic recipe, and from there I add whatever suits my fancy.

For many years I was honored to sing across Amerca, churches large and small, colleges, business and professional dinner groups, radio, TV, recordings, prisons and nursing homes. It was my assumption that I would sing up to the end, and I did; but not the end of life - just the end of physical strength. Cancer slowed me down, but when Parkinsons reared its' head, my days of singing were coming to an end. Finally, the day O. J. Simpson was acquited on the double murder charges, I was given a "life sentence!" I was not to get a repreive!

Now, all the music has been wrung out, and now that I can no longer sing, I make homemade icecream, and give it away! True, some give donations to assist with some of the costs, but they are few and far between. Thanks to a bequest in the estate of a friend, I was enabled to have a 12 X 16 building erected in our back yard in which I am able to make ice cream, and to house most all my ministry equipment. It isn't Baskin-Robbins, but it is better than it has to be.

Click HERE to order Recipe Book.