Ken Stonechild can still remember his first customer.
On July 6, 2017, he waited for his ice packs to freeze in his cart. He went to City Hall and, after a few hours, emerged with a business license.
He didn’t want to waste anymore time. He hopped on his bike and weaved through the streets, looking for clients.
He didn’t have to search for long. An older gentleman flagged him down. Stonechild pulled up next to him and took his order. Stonechild reached into his cart and pulled out two fudge bars. Stonechild accepted his money and set out down the road.
“My first customer gave me goosebumps,” he said.
Stonechild met dozens of customers as the summer rolled on.
“Yorkton took it very well,” he said. “People loved it.
“Finally achieving my goals was amazing.”
Ken Stonechild, 29, is the owner, operator, and founder of KDBS Mobile Ice Cream. He travelled around Yorkton on his bike last summer, delivering ice cream from his cart. He was the only employee, working long hours by himself.
“You have to start from the bottom,” he said. “I was very happy.”
Stonechild grew up in Yorkton. He currently resides in Regina, where he first started his business. He bought his bike on Kijiji and rode around town trying to sell cool treats.
Unfortunately, Stonechild wasn’t the only bicycle ice cream delivery service in town. Dickie Dee, which returned to Regina in 2016, had the market cornered. It was difficult for Stonechild to get his foot in the door.
“[I] didn’t want to compete with Dickie Dee,” he said.
Stonechild looked for nearby towns without his type of service. He settled on Yorkton and moved here for the summer.
Stonechild worked from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. Every day, he’d load up his cart with 24 ice packs and countless ice cream flavours, and start pedalling. He visited three areas: Near Painted Hand Casino, between First and Eigth Avenue, and Heritage Heights.
“I was a one-man show,” he said. “[I’m] my own boss.
“I fell in love with it.”
Stonechild worked until Sept. 3, at which point he moved back to Regina. But he wants to come back to Yorkton next summer, and he wants his business to be bigger.
Stonechild has started a GoFundMe page for KDBS Mobile Ice Cream. He’s raising money for two additional bikes. He wants one cart to exculsively sell snow cones. He’d like to hire two Yorktonites so his three regular areas can be covered at all times from May until September.
“Getting money together was the hardest part,” he said.
Jan. 16 is the cutoff date for the fundraiser.
Stonechild hopes his children are inspired by his hard work.
“Anything is possible if you put your mind to it,” he said. “[It’s about] blood, sweat, and tears.”
