FERGUS – Wellington Advertiser carrier Odyn Carr saved his paper money to buy an ice cream bike.
And with the engineering help of his big brother, Mike McKay from the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program, the bike will soon be ready for ice cream delivery.
Odyn, 11, has been delivering papers for two years now and his mother, Tiffany Burtch, told him he could not quit until he had another job lined up.
“I know my kid has a serious entrepreneurial spirit and probably won’t want to work for anyone else,” Tiffany stated in an email to the Advertiser.
Odyn initially wanted to run his own hot dog stand, but Tiffany and McKay both talked him out of it. They told Odyn that would involve more work, including food safety requirements.
In January Odyn and McKay bought an ice cream bike that was in rough shape for $150, which Odyn had made from his paper route. The pair has since spent about $900 and countless hours on the bike.
“This is our winter project. We took the old bike off and then chopped it and redid all the mechanics and made it into an ebike,” McKay explained.
Fergus has a few hills that Odyn will likely have traverse, so both decided he could likely use some help.
Big Brothers
McKay has been partnered as Odyn’s big brother for two years.
“It’s amazing. I was a little brother 50 years ago,” he told the Advertiser.
He wanted to pay it forward but thought he may be “too old.”
“Big Brothers is a great thing for kids that come from a non-father or a non-privileged situation,” he explained.
“Odyn and I have been together for two years. I’m a business man so I’m teaching him the basics of business.”
Last year, McKay and Odyn were also working on a project for the Big Brothers Big Sisters Canada Day Soap Box Derby.
The two of them built an entry from scratch and came in third place, managing to get their soapbox car to travel around 23km/h.
‘Rainbow Cream’
Odyn liked delivering newspapers, but says the weather made it unenjoyable at times.
That was one reason he wanted to start his new business venture, named Rainbow Cream.
“I want to take pride into my business, pride into me,” Odyn said, explaining why the name includes the word rainbow.
“Even … when times are tough, you have to take pride in something. So, this is what I want to take pride in.”
Odyn plans to kick-off his business on Canada Day weekend.
