Hundreds of workers in Darlington were treated to free ice creams last week, when the Feethams ice cream van went on a tour of the town as part of a local competition.

To celebrate the entertainment and leisure scheme’s successful opening earlier in the summer, Feethams Darlington commissioned the ice cream van to visit lucky workers who had entered its online competition all week – before making one last stop at St Teresa’s Hospice on Friday.

“It’s been a fantastic few days,” said Simon Hawkins, Development Director with Urban & Civic, the property development company behind Feethams. “We had hundreds of entries from businesses across the town, and then sent our ice cream van on a mission to deliver the cool sweet treat to one lucky winning team each day.”

From Monday, the Feethams Ice Cream Van was making calls at businesses across town and serving up free cones to keep the summer heat at bay. Colleagues at EE were delighted to see the Feethams ice cream van arrive at their Mercia House offices in Lingfield Way.

Karen Cowper, who was the first to be named as a winner, said it was great fun to take a short break for ice cream on Monday. “We had members of several different teams all come out to the van,” she said. “There were about fifty of us altogether, and we all thoroughly enjoyed our ice creams.”

[caption id="attachment_24716" align="alignnone" width="225"] Karen Cowper enjoys her ice cream at work[/caption]

As the week went on, the van made more surprise visits to staff at Darlington Memorial Hospital, T.Quality distribution centre, Busy Bees Nursery and Cummins Ltd, before heading to St Teresa’s Hospice in Woodland Road on Friday afternoon.

[caption id="attachment_24717" align="alignnone" width="300"] St Teresa’s Hospice Day Patient Eunice Clarkson (left) & Volunteer Ann Daykin (right)[/caption]

“When we launched Feethams earlier this year, we said we wanted to establish the entertainment and leisure scheme as a key member of this community,” said Simon. “Serving up free ice creams to entire teams of colleagues just seemed like a nice, neighbourly thing to do.

“As we recently named St Teresa’s as our chosen charity of the year - and as they do such exceptional work - we also wanted to do something a little special for them,” he said. “After we’d made our last competition winner’s stop on Friday, we called in at the Hospice to give out ice creams to colleagues there too.

“We’ve had such an enjoyable week bringing a smile to workers’ faces across the town,” he said, “and we’re looking forward to planning our next fun event at Feethams.”

[caption id="attachment_24718" align="alignnone" width="300"] (From left) St Teresa’s Hospice colleagues Gillian Bland, Physiotherapist and Therapy Manager, and Family Support and Bereavement Worker Julie Baker receive their free ice creams.[/caption]