As a way to celebrate its 20th anniversary and raise money for a charity in its hometown of Lubbock, Texas, shaved ice concept Bahama Buck’s announced that it will build the world’s largest snow cone next week.
The Guinness World Record–setting attempt will stretch over three days, December 7–9, and send all proceeds to the Children’s Home of Lubbock, an organization that provides services for children and families in need.
Blake Buchanan, president of Bahama Buck’s, says the World Record project has been in development for more than a year.
“What happened is at first we thought, ‘It will be fun to break a world record,’” Buchanan says. “It was really all about us at first. As we started building this project and really started diving into it, we realized it has nothing to do with us anymore—it’s all about these kids.”
The giant snow cone, which will be built at a Bahama Buck’s location in Lubbock, caps the company’s Sno Angel Project, which will send 100 percent of proceeds to the Children’s Home of Lubbock. The company is encouraging people to purchase blocks of ice to shave for the record setter as a way to raise funds.
Buchanan says children from the Children’s Home of Lubbock, which provides adoption and foster care for kids awaiting families, will be able to participate in the event.
“It’s created this adventure and excitement for them,” he says. “People donate money for them and that’s neat, but that someone would do a cause like this and they can come out and be a part of it and see it happening before their eyes, I think that’s where the excitement is really building around this.”
From a business perspective, creating the world’s largest snow cone has been a challenge, Buchanan says—especially considering the Bahama Buck’s record-breaker will be an estimated 25,000–30,000 pounds.
“It has been a huge undertaking,” he says. “We’ve had a lot of community guys step up. A lot of support has gone into this thing, or it would have been way too big of an endeavor for us to try to tackle on our own.”
The giant snow cone will be held in a 10-foot-high, high-density polyethylene bulk storage tank “cup”; will contain 16,080 pounds of snow and 14,160 pounds of birthday cake–flavored syrup; and will be able to serve more than 60,000 eight-ounce servings.
The previous record holder for largest snow cone was a 4,604-pound cone created by Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort in California.
Buchanan says there are no plans to break the record again.
“We hope that this springboards us into future projects with the Children’s Home of Lubbock,” Buchanan says. “Do we see ourselves breaking this record every year? Absolutely not. It’s a huge undertaking.
“But if there’s a challenger out there, absolutely—we’ve got to defend the record after we set it.”
By Sam Oches
