Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Williamsburg says farewell to SnoMania Island, another business fallen to the coronavirus

The Ware family opened SnoMania Island in Toano barely two weeks ago. (Courtesy SnoMania Island)
The Ware family opened SnoMania Island in Toano a little over four years ago before opening a second location in Williamsburg last year. (WYDaily file/Courtesy SnoMania Island)

Yet another casualty of COVID-19, SnoMania Island, located at 105 Bypass Road in Williamsburg, has closed their location.

“There are many factors that led to this difficult decision; however the devastating impacts of Covid was just too much,” according to their public post on Facebook.

SnoMania Island started in Toano back in 2017 and then opened their second location in the building formerly used as a Dairy Queen in 2019.

Related Story: New Toano family business brings snow to summer

Kraig Ware and his family started the business as a way to teach their sons how to run a business.

“When we set out to start up SnoMania Island four years ago we wanted to teach our boys how to work and do something that would bring joy to our community,” the public post said.

Ware, who has stated before to WYDaily, is a fanatic when it comes to snow cones, and wanted to spread the joy to the community by putting a twist on a classic dessert.

Their menu consisted of classic flavors of shaved ice, such as Pina Colada, Blue Raspberry, and Wild Cherry. Their most popular, and probably best known, menu item was the Fruit Mania. The dessert had shaved ice, fruit of course, and a topping of your choice.

The plan was to then include other classic food and snacks to the menu so the Williamsburg location could be opened year-round, like hot dogs and Caesar wraps. It’s unclear whether the Toano location will remain open.

Related Story: SnoMania Island opens second location at old Dairy Queen

What made the business even more unique was their community and global impact. With the sale of each treat, one meal would be donated through Feed My Starving Children, a charitable nonprofit organization that provides meals for children across the globe. Every meal costs just 25 cents through the nonprofit.

According to the public post, SnoMania Island contributed more than 81,000 meals.

Ware was not immediately available for comment.

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