Category Archives: Summer in Ann Arbor

Events, Summer in Ann Arbor

Start of our summer schedule

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Waiting for the Independence Day Parade to start in 2013 with Tea Haus friends.

Summertime is a season of plenty. And we will be part of plenty of good community events and art fairs this year.  We’re still adding events but here’s an early look at the joyful and delicious events for 2016:

June 12 – Grillin’ – the delicious fundraiser for Food Gatherers. Buy your ticket now – and provide lots of                     meals through soup kitchens, senior centers and more.

June 29 – Mity Nice Friends & Family Free Day. Like us on Facebook and you lick us for free!

July 4 – Independence Day Parade.  A fun community celebration produced by the Jaycees in downtown                  Ann Arbor.  Starts at 10, but arrive by 9:15 for best seating.

July 10 – Huron River Day. Come savor life, music, kayaking on the river. Fun family event produced by                    the Park Department.

July 18 –  Townie Party.  Music, youth art, food, fun and more to warm up for the Art Fair.

July 21-24 — Ann Arbor Art Fair.

Aug. 6 & 7 –  Belle Isle Art Fair in Detroit

In between all this, we are available for company picnics, family reunions and summer celebrations, weddings, bat mitzvahs, block parties and more.  We like backyard and park and neighborhood fun as well as the big events!

Art Fair 2013, near the Diag.
Art Fair 2013, near the Diag.

 

Events, Summer in Ann Arbor

Why we adore the Ann Arbor Art Fair

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Our Art Fair booth in 2013. The pinwheels attracted a lot of attention – and so did the mango ice!

For our first few years, the Ann Arbor Art Fair kept us in business.

We earned enough to pay our teen workers for August and September, and often enough to provide for sidewalk rental, health license and insurance renewals and other costs to start the next year.

The Art Fair remains a big helping of our business, and also a great source of joy. We dance at the Townie Party and we serve the artists of The Original Art Fair free ice. We hire extra teen workers – some of whom stick around for a year or two afterward.

We buy art, take naps in the Diag and see old friends who are back in town for the annual extravaganza.

This year you’ll find us on North University near Ingalls Mall – just a block or so away from our State Street location of the last few years. Art Fair runs 10-9 Wednesday through Friday and 10-6 Saturday.

Stop by, say hello — and cool off!

Events, Summer in Ann Arbor

Special event schedule

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We have a Mity Nice summer ahead, and we want you to come along.

We head to parks and to the Ann Arbor Art Fair, to dance festivals, book fests and one celebrating a special orange butterfly.

Here’s a schedule of special events that are open to all and so sweet that you really should not miss them:

July 12th – Huron River Day at Gallup Park. Rent a canoe, visit the children’s art and science tent and learn about the river.  Free music and more 12-4 p.m.

July 13th – Townie Street Party. This annual celebration kicks off Art Fair with music, children’s arts and crafts and local organizations. 5-9:30 p.m.

July 15-18th — Ann Arbor Art Fair. Find us in the Original – on North University near Ingalls Mall. Look for our red, white and green umbrella!

Aug. 2 – Fairy Festival at the Sunday Artisan Market. We founded this family celebration of fairy doors and fairies and now the Artisans will plan some fun activities.

Sept. 6 – Dancing in the Streets.  Learn to dance an array of international dances, or enjoy music and dance from Main Street.

Sept. 13 – Kerrytown Book Festival (tentative). Held in the Farmers Market, this festival is a great place to meet authors and small publishers.

Sept. 13 – Monarch Migration Festival at Leslie Science and Nature Center.  This ticketed event features games, educational activities and a chance to help the monarchs on their journey south.

We started our summer season at Grillin’ – the Food Gatherers picnic with a purpose – and also were part of the Ann Arbor Book Festival Street Fair in mid-June and the Jaycee’s 4th of July parade. We’d love to be part of your company or church picnic too!

In between all these big events we love to go to company picnics and special events and family reunions and celebrations.

 

charities, Summer in Ann Arbor

Lucky 7 launches with Peace & Dancing

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Dancing brings people together and encourages joy and creativity. (MorgueFile photo)

This weekend, we start our Lucky 7 charity events – and you, our guests are fortunate indeed.

For you will not only enjoy our company and our delicious made-in-Detroit Italian ice on Saturday and Sunday, but you will give to two worthwhile non-profits – and find joy right by our silver cart.

Saturday, we support Peace Neighborhood Center.  Since 1971, Peacehas provided  family and youth services to low-income and at-risk individuals and families from summer camps to tutoring to crisis assistance. Peace people will be with us on Detroit Street in Kerrytown from 9 to noon. And to make the day more magical, Gordon

Gordo the Magician will join us on Saturday morning. (Photo: courtesy Gordon Schott)

Schott, or Gordo the Magician,will join us, with his mix of tricks and balloon animals.

Sunday, we support Dancing in the Streets. This  event takes over Main Street downtown 1 – 7 and teaches us swing dance, waltz, English country dance and more.  Or watch belly dancing or join the “Do the Hustle” flash mob at 1:45 p.m.

For several years, we’ve donated to Ann Arbor Community of Traditional Music & Dance, the all-volunteer organization that produces Dancing in the Streets.   Children’s art activities and an instrument “zoo” plus a maypole make this a fun family day.  Volunteer to help with set-up or tear down too.  (Note: The photo is not from Dancing, though it almost could be.)

If this sounds like a joyful opportunity for community support, Mity Nice still needs more performers and musicians for the rest of our charity events. Join the fun-raisers by emailing us at busker@mitynice.com.

So please come out both days – and please plan to show up during the week too to support The Breakfast at St. Andrews (on Wednesday) or FLY Art Center (Friday afternoon). Check our full schedule of Lucky 7 charities or watch our Facebook for other details.

It’s going to be a sweet, sweet charitable Labor Day Weekend!

 

charities, Events, Summer in Ann Arbor

Sweet charity series

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Mity Nice believes in charity and giving back – in our daily operations and after we tally up any profits at yearend.

This year, we’re planning a fall charity fun-raiser – for seven charities!  This is a big undertaking for a little company,  yet we can’t help but feel excited and hopeful: We want to raise awareness, raise new volunteers – and donate a healthy share of our total sales each day to good local causes.

Here’s the schedule of charities:

While we have the charities, we still are looking for some fun for this fun-raiser – street musicians, performers, sidewalk poets or magicians who will join us. Interested? Drop us a line at busker@mitynice.com and let us know what charities and what days you’d like to play.
Even if you couldn’t dance or play music in public, you can participate. Share details of our fun-raiser with your friends – and bring a bunch of them down. Buy a pineapple Italian ice or a lemonade, an Italian soda or a Maize & Blueberry muffin – and we will give to the cause of the day.
Join us for seven days of sweet charity!
Events, Mity Nice news, Summer in Ann Arbor

A busy beautiful time for us!

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Singer / songwriter Joe Reilly will perform at the Leslie Science & Nature Center on Saturday. We’re supporting the fundraiser. (Photo by Chad Skeers)

While summertime means a slower pace for many, we are in our busiest two weeks of the year – and looking forward to every minute of it.

Well, every minute we don’t float away as happened during the Ann Arbor Art Fair a couple of years ago.  (Our booth on Liberty literally filled with a river of water and we lost a few things, carried downstream in the deluge.) We don’t mind a few sprinkles, especially first thing in the morning, and we do bring our umbrella to almost all our special events

So  you can find us at all the fun, here’s a rundown of our whereabouts:

  • Saturday, July 13 – We’ve mastered the twice as nice arrangement. So we will be on Detroit Street 9-3ish and then will send our mini-cart to the Leslie Science and Nature Center for singer and songwriter Joe Reilly’s concert. Tickets are still available for Songs for Scholarships. The concert starts at 11 a.m. and you may want to come early, to visit the owls or the Critter House.
  • Sunday, July 14 – Huron River Day at Gallup Park takes us to a beautiful place for canoeing, kayaking and learning about the river. There’s a marvelous science and arts tent for children (and we’re hoping we’re allowed to set up nearby). The event runs 12-4, but we’ll arrive a little early in case you need a refreshment after the morning 5K run/walk. We are bringing some strawberry lemonade – and strawberry Italian ice (another way we’re twice as nice)
  • Monday, July 15 – The Townie Street Party.Come hear the MacPodz and other bands. Or make a paper hat or a tile with Motawi. This party takes place on East Washington and Ingalls Mall and is a local favorite in its ninth year. We’re there with Tea Haus so you could enjoy an Arnold Palmer.

    Mity Nice staff on crazy hat day during Art Fair 2012.
  • Wednesday, July 17 – Saturday, July 20 – Ann Arbor Art Fair in all its glory. Look for our Tweet and our Facebook post on the exact location; likely on State Street.  We serve muffins in the morning and Italian ice and drinks all day and evening long. Plus we will debut …. the Mity Nice brownies and will bring along some gluten free and vegan goodies from Tasty Bakery so everyone can enjoy.
  • Sunday, July 21 – 12-3 p.m. back on Detroit Street. It’s National Ice Cream Day and we want to be part of it, even though we’re a dairy free and vegan treat.  This is also the day to shop with the Sunday Artisan Market, which gives you an appetizer portion of great art and craft – many of them locals.

We’ve already started making our Maize & Blueberry muffins and are picking up the lemons from Eastern Market tomorrow for the fresh-squeezed lemonade.  Our half tip jar for July will go to two charities – Ozone House and one to be chosen by our Mity Nice team.

Hope to see you at one or two or three of these places. It will be Mity Nice to see some familiar faces amid the sea of visitors to Ann Arbor!

Mity Nice news, Photos, Summer in Ann Arbor

We’re open at last! Twice the Mity Nice

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The Barringtons savoring the first Mity Nice ice of the season. Photo: Vickie Elmer

We know we’re late getting started, but we have a good excuse – truly.

Mark and Vickie were married barely a month ago, and couldn’t concentrate on the details of Mity Nice until early June.

Vickie and Mark, just wed and already behind! Photo: Patricia Beck

And since we lost our kitchen space when Papa John’s was demolished, we had to shop around for wedding rings and a kitchen partner at the same time.  And then the dog and cat … well enough of that.

Now though we’re open for the summer, and and welcomed our first customers to our tasty made-in-Detroit dairy free fat free treats.

We are thrilled to bring Ann Arbor Italian ices from two sidewalk spaces:

  • Our home base is 303 Detroit Street, right outside the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market. Come to the end of the Market where the office and bathrooms are located and go a little further – and there we are, right on your way to Tea Haus and the People’s Food Co-op. We  set up there Wednesdays and Saturdays, and occasional Sundays.
  • Our Main Street hangout is known as “Under the Clock” – and the clock is really a landmark.  We’re at the corner of Main and Washington in front of the First National Building, one of downtown’s beauties. We’ll be there Friday and Saturday nights, weather permitting and some other times too.
City rules do not allow us to set up during special events by the Main Street Association and during Art Fair so we turn into gypsies and move our wagons elsewhere those times.

So how do you, our dear customers, find out when and where we’ll be?  Our Twitter is easy – and the feed lands right on this website. Or join us on Facebook, and you’ll see some specials and join us for the Friends & Family Free Ice Frenzy, available exclusively to our Facebook friends.

So come out, say hello to the newlyweds and maybe you’ll toast us with our fresh squeezed lemonade – or our newest drink: A Pina Colada (virgin) made with Pineapple ice.

Yes, despite the slow start, it’s going to be a Mity Nice summer.

Summer in Ann Arbor

Summer’s sweet opportunities to give back

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Summertime in Ann Arbor has such beauty, such a lot of sweetness.

Yet all the fun and good times don’t come without a lot of work – and a lot of support.

Mity Nice tries to be a good citizen by donating Italian ice to charities. We donate to more than a dozen fundraisers and special events – and we give a free ice to everyone who marches in the Ann Arbor Jaycees’ 4th of July Parade.

Not everyone can come up with 700 servings of Italian ice in 45 to 50 minutes. But everyone can chip in and help make summertime better by donating time or money. Here’s a handful of sweet summer causes in Ann Arbor:

  • Send a kid to camp.  A nonprofit group called Summer Camp Scholarships wants to send fourth and fifth graders from low-income families to camp this summer.  They say $200 will buy ten duffel bags and ten sleeping bags and $400 will send one kid to camp for a week. (The camps are several area YMCA camps, which contribute a portion of the cost too.) The all-volunteer group also is looking for more people to help out – and this that we hope to join.
  • Dance and song. Sponsor the Ann Arbor Summer Festival Top of the Park. Someday maybe there will be a Mity Nice street performer’s evening or a Mity Nice children’s movie and dance night  But for now, we’re asking you to give a little. Anyone can become a supporter of this great event – and if you’re a Patron who gives $250 to 499, you’ll get invited to the season’s announcement party and receive a pack of ‘I Gave’ stickers to wear. Those are some of the coolest summer accessories.
  • Make Main Street bloom. Three blocks of Main Street are the home of 46 planter beds, places where flowers and trees grow and people sit and sip lemonade or enjoy some soup from Le Dog.  The Main Street Association hires a landscaper to plant flowers and maintain them. “The tree roots absorb all the water and nutrients from the soil, and visitors are quite rough on them,” said Maura Thomson, director of the business association. For $500 anyone can sponsor the posies for a year.  She figures they will have about 20 flower beds available to be adopted.
  • Volunteer in the parks.  You could Adopt-A-Park or help clean up the Huron River or build a blue bird box. There are other opportunities too, and many o fthem show up on VolunteerWashtenaw.
  • Bring free Italian ice to a charity or community.  OK, this is a little enlightened self interest. But we would just love to find a corporation or two or someone with deep pockets who wants to make summer more delightful at Peace Neighborhood Center or a public housing project, and will underwrite free ice for all. We’d also be glad to do this right outside your business, too, as long as we can invite in some young people too.
We will highlight a couple of other sweet opportunities too:
If you love art or artists, the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair and its siblings all need volunteers this spring and summer. Host an artist, help out with children’s activities and more volunteering available.  We donate some time and some Italian ice.
If you want go go on a’picnic with a purpose’  tickets for Grillin’ – a luscious fundraiser for Food Gatherers -are on sale. They need volunteers for the event, and we’ve already raised our scooping arm. Mity Nice will be out in the children’s area with the games – and we hope to see you there!

Copyright © Mity Nice 2013