Family hands out free ice cream with stimulus money

West Salem, Wis. (WKBT)- A local family put their stimulus checks to good use, but for the community.

Because the Groth family were able to keep their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, they let their daughters decide what to do with the stimulus money.

Their youngest daughter, Melanie (7), decided to buy 400 free ice cream cones for people who stopped at “Le Coulee Cheese Castle” in West Salem.

For part of the day, the Groth family worked to hand out ice cream cones to people who pulled up to the curb or rode in on bikes.

“My mom said we should give everyone at a company a free thing, and I picked to give them ice cream,” Melanie told us.

The event raised almost 400 dollars in tips, which is going towards the West Salem Care and Share Food Pantry.

Melanie wasn’t the only one to choose where the money went.

The other Groth girls gave their parts of the stimulus money to the Gundersen Emergency Room staff, Pearl Street Books, and the Coulee Region Humane Society.