For students looking to make money, Home City Ice could be the answer.

Home City Ice is a company located in 12 states that makes, packages and sells ice to grocery stores.

Kevin Ball, junior pre-nursing major, said he began working for Home City Ice in May as a commissioned route driver.

“I worked about five days a week for about eight hours and ended up making about $12,000 from May to August,” Ball said. “It was a tough job because it’s physically demanding but it was totally worth it. I made more money during the summer than most college students in a year.”

Ball said his job responsibilities included driving a truck, loading bags of ice weighing anywhere from seven to 22 pounds and selling the ice to grocery stores.

“I get money off of commission so basically I get paid by how many bags of ice I sell to stores,” he said. “I hustled and worked hard to fill up my truck and sell it all. I also had my (commercial driver’s) license so I got a raise.”

Ball said good salesmanship and good work ethic are the keys to earning more money.

Leah Wetterau, junior English major, said she started working for Home City Ice in May and will finish this month.

“My job responsibilities include answering telephone calls, processing online banking, managing other plants’ money, counting and processing drivers’ end of the day duties,” she said.

Wetterau said she thinks it’s a great job for students because the management is flexible with schedules and fair to employees. She also said it’s a friendly working environment.

“I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a decent-paying summer job,” she said. “It’s a step into the commercial and professional business world. It gives students a lot of opportunity for growth in any type of career field.”

Wetterau said she made $8.00 an hour and that was one of her favorite parts of the job.

“My least favorite part was the long hours I had to put in, but the money was well worth the work,” she said.

Karl Daymon, sophomore integrated social studies major, said he also started working for Home City Ice in May.

“I worked in production in a factory where I had to bag the ice, stack, load trucks and get it ready to be sold,” Daymon said. “I made $8.50 an hour and it was a great summer job because I was making more than minimum wage and got a lot of hours.”

Daymon said the hardest part of his job was the manual labor and working in 40-degree temperatures.

“I had to dress for the cold and wear gloves all summer and for the first two or three weeks I was really sore,” he said. “After a while you get used to it. There are other people on your production shift so you have help and it’s really social.”

He said he originally wanted to be a commissioned route driver but was glad he got the job in production because it was less physically demanding.

Daymon and Ball both said their jobs were usually done by men but women could also do the jobs or work in the office.

“I’d definitely recommend this job to anyone who doesn’t mind a little hard work,” Ball said. “I’ll be going back at Christmas break. I love it.”

Contact Maura Zurick at [email protected].