Blue Marble Dreams

WELCOME TO BLUE MARBLE DREAMS: RWANDA
A Community Development Initiative of Blue Marble Ice Cream
(Please stay tuned as our website gets polished up.)

WHAT IS OUR DREAM? 
At Blue Marble Ice Cream, we believe in spreading the love…the love we have for our ice cream, our community, our planet. Since 2007, we have offered our customers the best possible product, in both taste and integrity, in an eco-friendly environment to match.  

In the midst of our first busy summer, Blue Marble was posed a challenge: could we spread our love all the way to Huye, Rwanda? Our answer was a resounding "YES!"

To enable this cross-Atlantic leap, we have established Blue Marble Dreams, a nonprofit bridge that will allow us to reach Huye and, ultimately, many other communities across the globe. Through these international adventures, we will pursue our sweet but pragmatic dream: to explore the transformative potential of ice cream not just as a source of fun and joy but also as a means of sustainable economic growth in developing countries with local but underutilized dairy resources.   

ARE YOU A DREAMER, TOO?  
Pledge your support today!

While we are working toward securing Blue Marble Dreams' tax-exempt status, African Services Committee (Tax ID# 13-3749744), a fantastic NYC-based nonprofit organization serving the needs of our African immigrant friends and neighbors, has graciously offered to serve as our fiscal sponsor. This means that they will process all donations on our behalf and that your contribution is fully tax-deductible.

Donating is easy…  To contribute online, type in the amount below, click “donate” and away you go!

If you would prefer to donate by check:
1)    Make your check payable to African Services Committee;
2)    Be sure to write “Blue Marble Dreams” on the memo line; and
3)    Mail to: African Services Committee
                    Attn: Development Director
                    429 West 127th Street
                    New York, NY 10027

WHAT’S THE RECIPE?
One Scoop Each: Initiative & Integrity…
In October 2007, we (the Co-Proprietress team of Jennie Dundas and Alexis Miesen) opened Blue Marble Ice Cream, an enthusiastically green and family-friendly ice cream shop in Brooklyn, NY. Although we had little technical business experience, we believed that with the right combination of heart and grit we could build a business we believed in. And we did. Six months later, Blue Marble had become a mainstay of its Boerum Hill neighborhood, and we decided to spread the love even further into Brooklyn with the opening of a second shop in neighboring Prospect Heights.

Top with Inspiration…
Just two months after opening our second location, we were asked to consider a third in the most unlikely of places: Huye, Rwanda.

At the other end of this proposal was Odile Gakire Katese. Kiki, as she prefers to be called, met Jennie at the Sundance Institute, where they had both been invited to take part in its Theatre Lab. Upon learning of Blue Marble, Kiki approached Jennie with an idea as absurd as it was imperative.

She explained that while conventional development initiatives are vital to Rwanda’s physical wellbeing, there remains a need for efforts that boost the spirit of its people. Just as much as they need nutritious food and clean water, Kiki asserted, Rwandans need fun, joy, leisure and laughter, as these are the ingredients of a life truly lived. And what better way to meet this need than through the sweet symbolic magic of ice cream?

Together with Kiki, and using our Brooklyn shops as our guide, we envision a welcoming place where people can gather around a simple pleasure, where they can reconcile and remember that life is sweet, especially when enjoyed together. We also dream of providing a source of sustained income for local women, who will be trained in ice cream production and shop operations, and creating a robust, reliable market for Rwandan dairy farmers, allowing them to capitalize on one of the few natural resources they have in ample supply.

In Kiki’s words…
"Because we struggle most of the time, we find ourselves aggressive against happiness, love, joy, life. When we have children, we teach them that happiness doesn't exist; that there is no pure love and as legacy, we give them our despair, our debts, our doubts, our tears, our failures...Now, we want to share moments that are not embossed by despair and death... We want to create a space where poverty, disease, illiteracy... are not obstacles to happiness and barriers between human beings... We have to, for the health of our soul. Ice cream will have the power to reconcile people with life by reminding them that it is also sweet."

Sprinkle with Teamwork…
ALEXIS MIESEN, Blue Marble Ice Cream Co-Owner/Blue Marble Dreams Co-Founder

Before launching Blue Marble Ice Cream, Alexis spent ten years in the field of international development. She lived in Namibia for two years working in community education and organizing. At the age of 22, she independently raised nearly $100,000 to establish Rise and Shine, a scholarship fund for women studying at the country’s national university. After earning her Masters Degree in nonprofit management from Columbia University, she worked in the Executive Office of Secretary General Kofi Annan. She then spent two years as Development Director for African Services Committee, where she raised funds and awareness around the needs of African communities, both local and abroad.

JENNIE DUNDAS, Blue Marble Ice Cream Co-Owner/Blue Marble Dreams Co-Founder

After working professionally as an actress since the age of ten, Jennie started Blue Marble Ice Cream as a way to convert her environmental philosophy and commitment to the resources of Hudson Valley, New York into a profitable business. Like Alexis, she is committed to a business model that recognizes a measurement of currency that goes beyond the dollar to include community building, environmental awareness, and support of organic, fair trade agriculture worldwide. She still maintains a successful acting career, performing regularly in the media of television, film, and New York theatre.

ODILE GAKIRE KATESE, Rwandan Artist and Community Organizer
A theatre arts professional from Huye, Rwanda, Odile met Jennie this summer at the Sundance Institute’s Theatre Lab, where she was an International Fellow. As Assistant Director of the University Centre for Arts and Drama at the National University of Rwanda, Odile has focused her efforts on using the performing arts to rebuild her community in the wake of the 1994 genocide. She created Rwanda’s first ever contemporary dance company, Amizero Kompagnie, as well as Ingoma Nshya, or “Women’s Initiative,” the country’s first women’s drumming group. She has toured both nationally and internationally with both of these companies and continues to develop her own theatre projects. Odile is the catalyst behind Sweet Dreams. She is strongly motivated by the philosophy that development must go beyond meeting basic physical needs to address the psychological need for joy. For her, ice cream is a symbol of hope for her community.

MATT WHITE, Organic Dairy Farmer/Ice Cream Maker
In addition to being the exclusive ice cream maker for Blue Marble Ice Cream, Matt is a third-generation dairy farmer who currently assists in the management of an organic farm that produces pasture-raised pork, grass-fed beef and organic chicken and hay. His experience with dairy runs the spectrum from helping cows give birth, to milking them, processing milk, pasteurization, making ice cream mix, and finally creating ice cream. Matt took his first steps between the cows his mother was milking and continues to develop his expertise in a broad array of farming techniques. Recent projects include helping to convert a dairy farm into a certified organic meat farm, building a biodiesel plant and keeping up with the high volume demands of Blue Marble Ice Cream while managing the hay production at the organic farm. Matt Is committed to sustainable and organic farming.

ERIC DEMBY, Blue Marble Dreams Founding Board Member

Eric Demby co-founded Brownstoner’s Brooklyn Flea, the Sunday outdoor market in Fort Greene, in April 2008. From 2003 to 2007, he was the communications director and speechwriter for Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Since 1995 he has also worked as a journalist covering music, architecture, and politics for the New York Times, Artforum, and Metropolis. He is a co-founder of the movement to legalize dancing in New York City, as well as the Activate cultural-activism e-newsletter. He lives in Boerum Hill. Eric joined Blue Marble Dreams because of the project’s easy-to-grasp focus, and its enormous potential to bring together communities in New York and Rwanda through the common cause of happiness, global connectivity, and, of course, yummy ice cream. He loves operational puzzles and the challenge of starting big things from scratch, and BMD is full of both.

And serve with love.
Together, we will bring Kiki’s sweet dream to life by:
• Building a sustainable ice cream production and retail operation in Huye