For $10, unlimited ice cream, and a raffle for the Distinguished Speakers Series

Democracy is like a Forrest Gump box of chocolates – unless you vote, you never know what you’re gonna get.

That’s the spirit behind the League of Women Voters Pasadena Area’s annual Ice Cream Social, set for Sunday, August 30th, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm at the historic Maxwell House. For $10, attendees get unlimited Fosselman’s ice cream and sorbet, all the fixings, and a stake in the ongoing work of keeping civic life open, informed, and functioning.

More than a neighborhood mixer, this event includes bingo, a make-your-own-t-shirt station, and an afternoon with what the League calls “interesting, involved people.”  Every ticket purchased helps fund the League’s nonpartisan mission: encouraging voter participation and equipping citizens with the

tools to make informed choices at the ballot box.

This November, Californians face fourteen propositions — a ballot thick enough to overwhelm even engaged voters. The League’s signature pros-and-cons forums break down complex measures into plain language without telling anyone how to vote. In an era of misinformation, even-handed clarity is itself a form of democratic infrastructure. The League will also be on hand with information about voter registration and upcoming candidate forums. Continuing a century-old tradition, the organization traces its roots to the passage of the 19th Amendment.

The event also includes a raffle. A ticket automatically enters attendees into ten separate drawings for prizes including gift certificates to Vroman’s Bookstore, the Pasadena Symphony, and California Pizza Kitchen. There’s also a chance to bid on tickets to the Pasadena Distinguished Speaker Series, which this season features two figures who have spent careers in the arena of democratic politics: former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Politics aside, both speakers have spent decades navigating the machinery of elections, governance, and public trust, reinforcing the League’s mantra that democracy is a participatory sport, not a spectator one.

It’s worth remembering what nonpartisan actually means here: the League doesn’t endorse candidates or tell people how to vote. What it insists on, stubbornly and for over a hundred years, is that people vote — and that they do so with real information rather than assumptions. In a political climate defined by polarization and declining trust in institutions, that insistence can look almost radical in its simplicity.

So on August 30th, the invitation is straightforward: eat some ice cream, win a raffle prize, make a t-shirt, and while you’re at it, help keep the machinery of self-government running for one more election cycle. Defending democracy doesn’t always require marching in the streets. Sometimes it starts with a scoop of Fosselman’s and a conversation about what’s on your ballot.