WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. (WKBW) — Sweet Jenny's Ice Cream in Williamsville is dedicating its mint chip flavor to a cherished customer and beloved teacher for the entire month of October.
The shop is naming the flavor after Erica Michelle Jennings, a Spanish and French teacher at City Honors School who passed away on Sept. 15 at the age of 38 following a long battle with brain cancer.
Owner Howard Cadmus said the decision to honor Erica came naturally. Erica, her husband Thomas, and their daughter Michelle were familiar and cherished faces at the shop. Mint chip was Erica's favorite ice cream flavor.
"I knew from the moment that we found out what had occurred about her passing that we had to do something," Cadmus said.
Sweet Jenny's has been serving homemade ice cream in Williamsville for more than 40 years. Cadmus is donating a portion of the proceeds from sales of the renamed flavor to the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation.
"I believe she was one of those people where as soon as you saw her or her infectious smile or her laugh, the positive way she handled what she was going through, you just really felt moved by that," Cadmus said.
WATCH: Sweet Jenny's ice cream shop honors beloved teacher Erica Jennings with October tribute flavor
Thomas Jennings said the tribute means everything to his family. He remembered Erica as a selfless person who cherished her role as a mother and who touched countless lives through her deep involvement in the community and school.
"She was just the kind of person that walked into a room that everybody loved," Jennings said.
For the Jennings family, Sweet Jenny's was always a go-to stop, especially throughout Erica's treatment at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
"This was a constant, it's where we came to celebrate good news, it's where we came to kind of mourn bad news, I mean it's just.. It's just always where we came as a family and the three of us and bringing the dogs; it was actually the last place we ever came as well," Jennings said.
Thomas said he has been moved by the outpouring of support from the Western New York community and sees the ice cream tribute as a meaningful way to bring people together to remember Erica.
"I'm excited to come here a whole bunch in October and see a whole bunch of people that I know and give them all a hug as we all kind of go through that grieving process together.. It's just beautiful," Jennings said.
