New Crank and Boom ice cream honors ‘light and joy’ of Virginia Moore. How to get a pint

Crank and Boom Ice Cream in Lexington is bringing back its “Virginia S’moore” flavor to honor American Sign Language interpreter Virginia Moore who passed away in May.

Preorders of the 1 pint, small batch flavor cost $12 and are available until 11:59 p.m. June 11, according to Crank and Boom’s website. All proceeds will benefit the Knowledge Center on Deafness, a nonprofit organization Moore was the chair of.

Moore became a beloved figure in Kentucky when she started interpreting Gov. Andy Beshear’s daily COVID-19 briefings. She was also the executive director of the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

During the pandemic, the ice cream shop released special flavors to raise money for nonprofit organizations, Toa Green, owner of Crank and Boom, said. Inspired by the work that Moore was doing with Beshear in the briefings, they created flavors like “Virginia S’moore” and “Candy Beshear.”

Moore’s ice cream flavor was the first s’mores flavor on the menu, and it became staple in the company’s summer rotation of small batch flavors, Green said. The flavor is made with SuperFudge ice cream, in-house made marshmallow fluff and toasted graham crumb.

In honor of Moore’s passing and with the blessing of her family, it felt right to bring back the flavor to remember her and raise awareness for an organization she cared about, Green said.

Preorders are available for pickup from June 16-22 at the Clays Mill location.

“Like everyone else who was watching the daily press conferences with the governor, I think we all saw and felt like we knew Miss Virginia,” Green said. “She was just a person of light and joy.”