Welcome to Summit Fresh Ice Cream & Gelato in Libertyville, IL.

On December 26, 2005 I was talking to a friend and former co-worker at my health club. His son had owned a bicycle shop in Boulder, Colorado, but had sold it to open an ice cream shop. Later that day I thought that an ice cream shop might be a good venture for me. You see, I was searching for a career that would keep me closer to home. I was traveling every week with my previous job and was missing visitation time with my 12-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son. That was the impetus for me looking for a new career, and that chance meeting and subsequent conversation with David Arendsen started the proverbial ball rolling.

That afternoon I called David, his son Peter and the owner of the franchise that Peter had licensed in Boulder. I also drove through downtown Libertyville to see which properties were vacant. I called several landlords, including my current landlords. They informed me that they were leaving for Palm Springs the next day for the winter and that they couldn’t show me their property at 355 North Milwaukee Avenue in Libertyville. His son showed me the property a few days later, and I decided immediately that that was the spot for my ice cream and coffee shop. I had also decided that, if I didn’t get that space, I wouldn’t proceed with the venture, and I would continue working in pharmaceutical research until I found another career that would require less travel.

After speaking to the landlords on the phone and communicating via e-mail with no progress towards signing a lease, I flew to Palm Springs on January 14, 2006 to meet them. At the airport I stressed how much I wanted the east half of the first floor of their building (it had been vacant for about a year). I also relayed the background behind my decision to change careers that I have outlined previously in this history. I then boarded my plane to Denver to meet Peter Arendsen and the franchise owner in Boulder. The meeting went well, and I was ready to continue with the venture. A few weeks later my attorney reviewed the franchise agreement and discovered that the company wasn’t registered to franchise in Illinois. He recommended that I not, under any circumstances, proceed with that company.

In the meantime I had been at my health club again and had seen a program on the Food Network about independent ice cream shops across the United States. The program featured Malcolm Stogo, president of Ice Cream University in New York. I phoned Mr. Stogo who stated that he had a class beginning in the next few months. I informed Malcolm that I couldn’t wait as I needed to open the shop for the busy summer ice cream season, and a delay in my training would make that virtually impossible. I arranged a private, 2-day session with Malcolm and flew to New York on March 7, 2006.

I then flew to Houston to discuss investing in Summit with my mom, and she agreed to invest. While there, I awakened at 2:00 one morning with a fright because I had no name for the shop. I started with Avalanche (too negative), Polar (too common) and Summit. Months earlier my children and I had chosen a name for the corporation under which the ice cream shop would be structured. We used the letters from our names and decided on Aiming High Enterprises, Inc. (AHE, Inc.). I wanted a very positive-sounding name for the corporation, and Aiming High fit the bill. In Houston I thought that Summit was a perfect match for Aiming High and a perfect name for the shop. With the name chosen, I promptly went back to sleep.

I received the lease from my landlords on May 1, 2006 and signed the lease 12 days later. On that same day demolition and construction began. During construction, a student from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management walked into the shop and told my manager about a group project that she was doing. Students were assigned to drive around the county, choose a building and, based on the building’s design and location, choose a business that would fit that building. The groups were then to develop business plans. Her group chose my building and an ice cream shop. There have been countless “coincidences” along the way that have told me that this is what I should be doing. Following these “signs”, Summit Fresh Ice Cream and Gelato opened its doors for business on September 1, 2006 at 6:05PM.

As we entered the slow season for the ice cream business in fall 2007, finances were tight. As a result, I went back to work part time as a consultant in pharmaceutical research and hired a manager to run the shop when I traveled. I also liquidated many of my possessions. One of them was the 1967 Cougar that I inherited from my dad. While searching for the title, I discovered an old file labeled “Dad”. In it I found a little book titled “The Key to Success is Held in Your Hands”. I opened the book to read the inscription on the inside front cover: “To Guy. Love, Dad. 6-12-80”. He had inscribed the book one month after I had graduated from college and two days before I started my first professional job. I don’t recall receiving this book from my dad, and I don’t think that I had ever read it. That night I did. One of the first things that I noticed was that the predominant colors of the book were blue and brown (the official colors of Summit). Towards the end of the book was a short poem written by Diane Westlake:

Whatever the struggle
Continue the climb.
It may be only
One step to the summit.

On May 30, 2008, summer-like storms caused a power outage at the store that lasted 12 hours. At approximately 6PM, ComEd estimated that the power would be restored at 2:30PM the next day. I had purchased 15 bags of ice at Sam’s Club earlier that day to keep the display freezers cold. With the ComEd announcement, I knew that I couldn’t salvage the ice cream overnight. I decided to give it away. From 6PM until 11PM all of the ice cream in the display freezers was free! We put our “Free Ice Cream” signs that we use for celebrating our anniversaries in the windows, and the people came in droves. Channel 2 News Chicago was filming the outage a block away in front of The Picnic Basket, and the owner of that Libertyville institution told the reporter what we were doing. He and his cameraman reported from the shop, and we were on the 10:00 news that night.

The biggest of the many highlights thus far in the life of Summit is that we were chosen as one of the TOP 10 ice cream shops in the U.S. by Good Morning America! We were featured on ABC News Chicago on July 11, 2008 on their 10:00 news program featuring Steve Donliski, The Hungry Hound.

Great things continue to happen at Summit Fresh Ice Cream and Gelato, and I thank my customers, investors, family and friends for making this a reality and a true destination in the Chicago suburbs.

Guy Stehley
President