Our Ice Cream Story
Teacher Created Materials Publishing, Inc. has three buildings located in Huntington Beach, California. Each building has an ice cream case, always fully stocked with ice cream, available to all TCM employees and visitors for free. Why?
Rachelle Cracchiolo, CEO and founder of Teacher Created Materials, is the daughter of Dolores Cracchiolo, an ice-creamaholic. Dolores’s first job was at the Blue Ribbon Ice Cream parlor in Detroit, MI, where she met her husband (Rachelle’s Dad) and was told eat as much ice cream as she wants. She has never gotten sick of it.
In 2007, TCM celebrated its 30th anniversary, and the company brought in an ice cream case just for the 30th anniversary event. The warehouse manager locked the case afterwards.
A few weeks later, Dolores was in the area and wanted ice cream, so she tried to take one from the ice cream case but couldn’t, because it was locked!
So she stormed up to Rachelle’s office, where Rachelle was on a phone call with a very important international customer. Dolores shamelessly interrupted the call to say, “Why is the ice cream freezer locked? Ice cream should be available always!”
The customer overheard Dolores over the phone and said to Rachelle, “You better listen to your mother.” Rachelle said, “You’re right mom,” and played “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream” over the PA system to announce ice cream – anytime.
Since then, Teacher Created Materials has had one shiny red ice cream case, reflecting the bold red of the TCM logo, in each of its three office buildings. Every ice cream case is always stocked with ice cream and remains unlocked at all times, so anyone at Teacher Created Materials can enjoy a cold tasty treat any time they want.