Marilyn’s great interest in ice cream may have started in the womb. Her Dad Jack answered her Mom Teresa‘s pregnant cravings with ice cream, and the ice cream kept flowing as six Lavertys entered the world over the next 17 years. There were a lot of birthdays, communions, and graduations to celebrate. Recitals and report cards, vacation trips and holidays. Whatever the occasion, there was ice cream. Pilgrimages to the local parlor equalled good times and good memories.

Marilyn grew up in a small town on the Jersey side of the Delaware River where there were just six stores and three of them sold ice cream. Family outings were trips to a chrome stooled ice cream soda fountain called The Sharon Shoppe, where Marilyn coincidentally held and was fired from her first job. In college, she answered the call of a summer job at the home of ’28 Flavors’, Howard Johnson’s. Canoe shaped banana split boats and dainty tulip cups tiptoed through her dreams .

A senior year magazine writing course lead to her first full time job as a journalist. She covered local weather and news for a small daily paper and was able to write about another one of her passions, rock music. She had a steady flow of assignments for US and British magazines after moving to New York to accept an assistant position at Columbia Records. She rose to department head then founded the pr firm Shore Fire Media and has fashioned iconic, award winning campaigns for Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Lana Del Rey among many others. Shore Fire today reps top musicians, actors, athletes, authors, and creators, and Laverty has been named to Variety and Billboard ’Top Exec’ lists.

Stopping at a cherished childhood ice cream stand during a pandemic road trip, Laverty was transfixed by the emotional pull of the place — not just the ice cream flavors but the colors, the design flourishes, and of course the welcoming staff. What was the magic behind these evocative landmarks which serve their communities so fully and affordably, often for decades and multiple generations?

In her search for an answer she's met culinary artists as dedicated to the purity of their craft as her favorite indie musicians. Dedicated children of ice cream dynasties going back four generations or more. Accidental shop owners who couldn’t resist an offer to buy the place they worked in during high school to keep it open for the community. Newcomers who are making exceptional ice creams from every kind of ingredient. America’s love of ice cream dates to the 1700s and now, as then, its heroes are of every age, race, and nationality. That’s what Destination Ice Cream is all about.