Celebrate Missouri’s Bicentennial At An Ice Cream Social Next Tuesday

Missourians have been planning to participate in a statewide ice cream social to celebrate the 200th birthday of Missouri. The event will be held Aug. 10, 2021, Missouri’s statehood day. Missouri 2021 has been keeping track of communities and organizations that have organized ice cream socials and registered their events at missouri2021.org.

Locally, Belgrade State Bank is sponsoring ice cream socials at all bank locations during the afternoon on Tuesday, Aug. 10th. Plans are to begin at 2 p.m.

The Village of Caledonia is joining with Belgrade State Bank for a special afternoon with ‘Uncle Sam’ visiting, ice cream, balloons and more at the Caledonia facility.

First State Community Bank is joining the Old Mines Area Historical Society with an ice cream social at the St. Joachim School parking lot from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

“We were looking for a statewide event where every Missourian could participate in the bicentennial, so why not a good old-fashioned ice cream social to celebrate our state’s milestone!” said Michael Sweeney, bicentennial coordinator for the State Historical Society of Missouri. Sweeney said the idea behind the event is to bring everyone together for 2021 to enjoy a tasty treat from a favorite ice cream shop or by making “homemade” ice cream from specially-created flavors for the day or enjoying old favorites using a hand-crank machine.  

“It’s also a way to celebrate Missouri’s dairy industry and many of the finest ice cream establishments throughout the state. Plus, it’s usually very hot in August,” added Sweeney. 

Missouri 2021 will be sharing submitted photos of the ice cream social using the hashtag #ScoopsAcrossMissouri.  

Did you know that ice cream is the official state dessert of Missouri? You may have heard that the ice cream cone was introduced at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. According to the Library of Congress, the sweet, creamy confection in a walk-away cone made its debut at the World’s Fair – thousands of years after the frozen treat would find its origins in either Persia, Rome or Mongolia. There’s much debate to where it all began!