How Butler track seniors turned a love for the ’80s into an Hawaiian ice business and help students in need
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Butler seniors and track and field athletes Evie Paserba, left, and Madi McGarrah have started their own small Hawaiian ice business called '80s Ice. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Evie Paserba and Madi McGarrah put the finishing touches for a Hawaiian ice dish in their trailer in Butler on Thursday, May 1, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Evie Paserba puts gummies on a Hawaiian ice dish as Madi McGarrah holds the desert in their trailer in Butler on Thursday, May 1, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Evie Paserba puts gummies on a Hawaiian ice treat as Madi McGarrah holds the desert in their trailer in Butler on Thursday, May 1, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Evie Paserba decorates crushed ice with syrup in her and Madi McGarrah's Hawaiian ice trailer in Butler on Thursday, May 1, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Madi McGarrah prepares a Hawaiian ice treat in her and Evie Paserba's trailer in Butler on Thursday, May 1, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
Butler seniors Madi McGarrah and Evie Paserba are rarely apart.
In school. In sports. On vacation. And at work.
The best friends, who compete for the Golden Tornado track and field team and grew up playing basketball and soccer together, operate ’80s Ice, a mobile Hawaiian shaved-ice business that can be spotted at Butler-area sporting events, community days and more during the spring and summer.
Originally a means to earn an income with a part-time job while balancing school and sports, Paserba and McGarrah also partner with the Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation and give 10% of their proceeds to the organization’s Kids’ Weekend Backpack Program.
“I think the nicest part about doing shaved ice is, yeah, we get to make money for college and everything, we get to save up money for all of that, but also just being able to give back to the backpack program,” Paserba said. “It’s been really cool, and they’re such a great (organization) that it’s been nice to get the word out about them.”
’80s Ice, which the teenagers founded in 2023, was a few years in the making. Paserba’s father initially pitched the idea after vacationing — with McGarrah — in Hawaii when the two were freshmen at Butler High School.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, OK,’” Paserba said, mock rolling her eyes.
But the idea stuck in their heads, and eventually the two, with the help of their parents, purchased some equipment and ice and worked a couple of events out of a tent. Family helped them get permits and licenses, purchase a custom-built trailer to operate out of and served as volunteer taste testers — giving everyone an “insane sugar high by the end,” McGarrah said while laughing. Some fan-favorite flavors: piña colada and mai tai are a hit with adults, cotton candy is big with children.
Paserba created a website, McGarrah handles social media. And a rotating group of friends helps run the trailer when they cater events.
They named their company ’80s Ice because of a shared passion for ’80s music, movies and pop culture. Their logo is an anthropomorphic cup of ice with rainbow “hair” for the ice, a boom box and ’80s-era sunglasses. They play ’80s (and ’90s) music, from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Madonna. Some of their flavors have pop-culture names to fit the vibe.
The duo opened their trailer for the first time last summer and worked about 25 events, including Butler Area Midget Football games every weekend in the fall.
It was a learning process. Being teammates in soccer or basketball is one thing, coordinating a business and delivering orders to customers was another. They had to learn how to make syrup, mix flavors, remember where their stock was and communicate in the trailer, all with waiting customers at the window.
“We were so slow throughout the entire summer,” said McGarrah, who from her experience running ’80s Ice has decided to study marketing at Cleveland State University, where she’ll also run for the track and cross country teams.
“Finding events (was the hardest part last year),” said Paserba, who will study biomedical engineering and said this experience has taught her lessons to run her own sports physician business one day. “It’s a lot of work, I’d say. It was a lot of work in the beginning, but it definitely paid off to be able to make our own schedules.”
It has also paid off for the Kids’ Weekend Backpack Program.
Paserba and McGarrah decided last year to partner with the program that serves Butler Area School District students in grades kindergarten through fifth, giving 10% of their proceeds to it. Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation board member Audray Muscatello Yost, who helps run the program, said the money helps provide free food — including fruit, applesauce, crackers and more — in anonymous bags to about 420 students in the school district every weekend, on holidays and during the summer.
Paserba, who helps deliver the bags a few times a month, and McGarrah raised $1,500 last year. With more than 40 events already booked through the summer, they hope to raise even more.
“They’re two young girls still in high school, graduating this year, but the fact that they still want to do this for the children in their school district who are food insecure is pretty amazing,” Muscatello Yost said. “We’re so proud of them.”
Having an impact on the community has been one of the best parts of running their company, Paserba said. But both described the operation as a stressful kind of fun. They enjoy the challenge, as well as seeing people recognize them and their trailer in the community.
“It’s just super fun where it’s a job I can stay busy the entire time,” McGarrah said. “It’s fun to be in a stressful environment with your friends.”
’80s Ice will operate into late summer, including through Butler Area Midget Football weekends. The friends intend to continue the business each summer through college, probably starting in late May after their return home from classes.
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