1993

16 years ago Todd and Tami Truax envisioned an Ice Cream stand that would honor the Lord Jesus Christ and be a fun safe place for kids of all ages! Tami thinks Todd is the biggest kid she knows! Todd would agree!

2006

November

Joined National Ice Cream Retailers Association “NICRA”. Started taking classes on how to start and operate an Ice Cream Restaurant. We now attend NICRA seminars annually and take our manager with us. Believe me we really have a great time!

2007

December

Todd, Tami, and Matthew (the oldest son) attended Malcolm Stogo’s Ice Cream University in Florida.

2008

January

Todd, Tami, and Matthew attended “Successful Ice Cream Retailers” The Course was held at the College of Food and Science at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Try to be a Buckeyes fan and have to be in Gator land for a week, it was very difficult!

March

“The Ohio State Buckeyes” block O seating area was created and has been a big hit! People have driven here just to take their family pictures in front of it! Go Bucks!

We hired Scott “Vanilla Thunder” Silver (Tami’s brother) as our General Manger.

April

Tami and Matthew were practicing making Waffle Cones; it looked like the place was on fire due to all the smoke… it set off the Fire alarm. We got a visit from the Plain Local Fire Department. They sent 2 Fire Trucks, and several Firemen. It attracted so much attention people definitely knew something was happening at “that Sonshine Medical Building”!

May

Almost Heaven’s first “Unofficial opening” thanks to Grandma Shirley telling all her friends. We had to have our cash register company come in the day before just so we could have a register working. We were shocked at how many people came.

Almost Heaven's official soft-opening day. We had 20 people when we started, Todd, Tami, Matt, Jared (the youngest son), Scott, Cliff (we call him “Pop”, he’s Tami’s Dad), Megan, B.J., Andrea, Courtney, Brittany, Stephanie, Nathan, Corey, Nicole, Ashley, Allyssa T., Alyssa C., Lisa T., and Emily.

We had our Grand Opening, if you bought ice cream you got a free waffle cone. We had celebrities Laurel and Hardy, and Kman from K105 did a live simulcast in our parking lot. It was on a Sunday - we were not open on Sunday’s the first year. We truly believe it is a day of rest. We got so much feedback that we decided to open on Sundays for 2009 (turns out it’s our best day of the week.)

October

Ended our first season. We had a great time but were ready for a little rest and relaxation. We tried having “Cruise-ins for Hot Rods.” We had a live DJ (Big John) every Wednesday. We had so much fun we are going to continue it every Wednesday in 2009!

2009

March

Northeast Ohio Food Snob, a food critic from Uniontown, Ohio, gave us three A+'s. For service, location, and the best homemade ice cream, and coney dogs. http://neofoodsnob.blogspot.com/

We opened our second season well rested and ready to roll.

Todd, Scott and Matt attended ServSafe national classes, and received certificates from the Health Department. Most major restaurants only have one “Food Protection Manager.” We have three!
 

April

Girl Scouts fund Raiser. We served sundaes to over 280 scouts and leaders in 90 minutes. Our arms were really sore! We had a great time, and met a great bunch of people.
 

May

“Taste of Canton," the First Annual Event. We Scooped 1,329 cones from 11:00 am - 9:00 pm. Everyone loved the ice cream. We served orange pineapple, chocolate, and our butter pecan. We got such great feedback on all those flavors. Wow some people came back twice!
 

July

WHBC 1480 am radio star Ron Ponder of "Points to Ponder" radio show performed a simulcast. We were supposed to have buy-one-get-one-free ice cream cones, and Ron who loves our coneys accidently told everyone we were having buy-one-coney-get-one-free. It was our biggest day of selling hot dogs ever! Thanks, Ron!

Bicentennial Event Diamond Park, It was a great time and the fireworks were awesome!

We were asked to serve ice cream at a trade show in Cleveland. The event was held at the Downtown Marriott. We served orange pineapple, chocolate, and our butter pecan. 

August

First Friends Church had a Social Event. They had a Christian rock band that was awesome! They had lots of activities and games. There was candy, coneys, balloons, and of course homemade ice cream!

September

“Vintage Canton” - They had wine, food, art, music, and of course out homemade ice cream.  We were the first ice cream shop to ever attend this event, it was a huge success!

Closed our second season, and we feel really blessed because of all the wonderful comments about our ice cream!

2010

January

        "Construction" Moved Freezer, Blast over to new area. Created excess room in Building to add Soft Serve Machine. 
         Counter Space for Waffle makers, and Perfect Fryer.  

March
        Opened on the 14th.
      
          Jared Truax, Todd and Tami's youngest son started working at Almost Heaven. Later he started taking

          over ice cream production operations due to his older brother Matt Truax enlistment into The United

          States Marines Corp.

August
          Event at First Friends Church. Sold coney's and ice cream to a fun filled crowd. The event had over 600

          people in attendance! It was a really hot day as well! 1st time preparing that many hot dogs in advance
          for an event!

        First "customer appreciation day". Offered regular cones for one dollar! Huge Turnout! family, friends,     

        first time customers, returning customers, everyone showed up! It was a huge blessing!
September
         We closed at the end of September
December
         We opened up from 12/6-12/23 for Christmas Cakes

2011
March

          Opened on 3/14/2011- rained almost everyday till May
May
          Diamond Park Lacross.
          Taste Of Canton
June
           The Avenue
           North Canton Main Street Event
July     
           Diamond Park Cruisn
August
           Dollar Cone Day
           1st Movie Night
           North Canton Main Street Event
September
           Dollar Cone Day
           End Of Season