 "Photo: Chelsea Yurisic/The Penn")
We all scream for ice cream!
That is exactly what happens on the days when Katrina McGaughey, also known as the Ice Cream Lady, is at Foster Dining Hall.
McGaughey, from Dixonville, 10 miles east of Indiana, is actually a milkshake and cake lover. So why does she serve ice cream here on IUP’s campus?
“I enjoy my job,” said McGaughey. “If I wasn’t interacting with y’all I wouldn’t enjoy it as much.”
Katrina, a chocolate peanut butter cup lover, does more than just serve ice cream. She enjoys taking care of her Pit Bull puppy, Dude. She also enjoys camping at Cook Forest and tubing down the Clarion River with her family-sized party tube that holds eight adults.
“I’m huge on family,” she said. “I have a very active family life.”
Katrina likes to spend time with her daughter, Brandy, and her two grandsons, Harley, 4 1/2, and Zachary, 1. She also takes care of her mentally handicapped brother, George.
Not only do the students at the cafeteria like Katrina, but one of IUP’s students, Zachary Lynn (freshman, mathematics), started a Facebook group in honor of Foster’s Ice Cream Lady.
With more than 2,000 members, this Facebook page is visited daily by IUP students who leave comments about their visits with Katrina.
“I made it at 2 a.m.,” Lynn said, “because I thought, ‘You know what? She brightens up so many people’s days, and she even knows my name.’ So I decided if I was going to make a Facebook group, it might as well be for her.”
“I am so flattered,” said McGaughey. “The fact that students take time out of their day to make comments. I absolutely love it.”
Katrina has a love for music. As a fan of Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead, she plays music while she serves ice cream.
“We know everyone loves music, and when I put my jams on, I’m in seventh heaven,” she said.
“I love it when she sings along to songs playing on her radio,” said Kelli Thomas (freshman, College of Humanities/Social Science).
According to Katrina, she wants to make a scrapbook of all the things students have given her.
She wants to be able to show it to her grandkids.
“I honestly would never get ice cream if I didn’t see her there to make me feel better,” said Dave Kondracki (sophomore, Eberly College of Business). “So many days that I just hated everything about school and life, I would walk in there and she would be serving ice cream, and she would always make me feel so much better.”
“Foster’s without her would be like peanut butter and jelly without bread,” he added.
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