Like her competitors, Connie Brown at the Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor mixes a lot of things with her ice cream: fruit, chocolate, nuts, cookie dough. Unlike many in her business, she feels comfortable mixing religion in with her sundaes.
On Saturday, September 24, Natasha Alexander is going to present a reading from the book “Smile All the While” at the Brown Cow beginning at 3:00 p.m.
According to Alexander, Smile All the While discusses the Biblical character, Adam, with ideation beyond the story of Creation.
While many business owners avoid mixing religion or politics with their businesses fearing that religion can be divisive and alienating to customers, Connie Brown feels the blending to be natural.
“I am not the evangelical type by any means,” she said. “However, there was a specific point when I realized that my role in owning a store can be used as a tool to share my faith when appropriate.
She pointed to an incident last summer when a man came into the parlor in an intoxicated state. “It was obvious this man wanted to talk to someone,” she said.
Brown bought the man a cup of coffee, and he broke down in tears and told her about the heartbreak he had experienced in recent years. He returned several times after that, as if looking for a safe haven, she said.
She now sees the visits as missed opportunities to discuss her faith with the man, and said she is “prepared now and am waiting for him to come back in.”
So, when Alexander showed her the Smile All the While presentation, Connie Brown was sold on having it in her store. “I’m grateful,” Brown said, “that I have the appropriate venue to help her launch her book.”
Alexander said that her book is aimed at readers between the ages of four and eight. She uses puppets and activities in her presentation and projects the pages of the book onto a wide screen.
