Elizabethtown College’s Office of Student Activities (OSA) is kicking off the spring semester with a few fun activities. On Jan. 18, the office provided free tickets to the Turkey Hill Experience in nearby Columbia, Pennsylvania.
All students had to do to secure their ticket was stop by the Hub located in the Baugher Student Center (BSC) and fill out a form. Both ticket options were free of charge as long as students picked up their ticket code and redeemed it at the Turkey Hill Experience during their selected time slot. Failure to do so resulted in the full ticket price being charged to the student’s business office account.
Students were allowed one free ticket and could choose between a single or double scoop ticket. The single scoop ticket included create your own virtual ice cream flavor, packaging and commercial, unlimited samples of Turkey Hill ice cream and beverages, interactive exhibits and the history of Turkey Hill. The double scoop ticket included all of the same benefits with the addition of the Taste Lab Experience.
The Taste Lab Experience gave students the chance to create their own personalized ice cream flavor. There were plenty of choices for flavoring, inclusions and syrups. Those who chose to do the Taste Lab Experience were walked through the ice cream-making process by one of the Turkey Hill Experience’s staff. Those in the taste lab played a Turkey Hill-themed trivia game with questions like “What is Turkey Hill’s best-selling flavor?” while enjoying their new ice cream flavor.
Some Etown students, like sophomore Hannah Galbraith, had never been to the Turkey Hill Experience before.
“I really enjoyed creating my own ice cream flavor! It was an amazing opportunity to create my own flavor combination that is never in stores,” Galbraith said. “I would 100% go back again if I had the opportunity to do so.”
Another student, Kara Bidgood Enders, had been to the experience before, but this time got to enjoy it with friends.
“Getting to experience it with friends was certainly a lasting memory,” Enders said. “I don’t recall ever doing the taste lab, but I really enjoyed the experience of getting to create my own flavors.”
The taste lab was not the only exciting part of the experience. Either before or after the lab, students were free to roam the second floor of the building which housed many interactive exhibits and historical facts about Turkey Hill.
Part of the upstairs experience was creating your own virtual ice cream flavor as well as packaging and a commercial to go with it. In between the stations to create these were other exhibits like a mini-game that showed the difference between the bad and good bacteria in milk.
The most exciting part of the upstairs was the unlimited ice cream and beverage samples. Students could try as many of the flavors offered that day as they wanted. One flavor offered was the limited-time “Phillies Graham Slam” ice cream which is only sold during baseball season. The beverages were just as exciting and offered unlimited samples of the many Turkey Hill iced teas and lemonades.
Many students found out about the tickets to the Turkey Hill Experience through OSA’s Instagram page (@etownosa). OSA often posts about the different activities they are hosting or are planning to host in the future on their page. They also tend to repost other clubs’ activities on their Instagram story. Students can follow the OSA Instagram to keep up to date on all the latest activities.
