SAN DIEGO — It all started when La Jolla Shores resident Penne Horn had a birthday coming up.
"It started as a joke. My son asked what I wanted for my birthday, and without any thought the words flew out of my mouth — 'I want an ice cream maker,'" Horn said.
The rest, you could say, is history.
Since the day she received her wishlist item, Horn, like many of us, spent time indoors with her new gift.
"I started making ice cream. I just had too much of it and thought, 'There's gotta be something I can do with this,'" Horn said.
So, she began to give it away to neighbors. It was so good that nearby residents with a sweet tooth wanted more, and insisted on paying her.
Then, a light bulb went off.
"I was hearing stories of families who got dogs in beginning of COVID, then lost their job and couldn't feed family, let alone their dogs," Horn said. "I thought, 'I will make the ice cream and ask people for donations. They'll donate and I'll buy dog food, and take it down to St. James church where they'll distribute it.;"
Then, new ideas kept getting added to the mix.
"One lady came to me and said I'll donate whatever if you make an ice cream named after my dog," Horn said.
Twoee's Howling Good Ice Cream was born, named after her own sweet, furry companion.
"I draw all these different characters of dogs and name the ice cream after their dog," Horn said,
Horn is a former member of the Scripps and Humane Society boards, and she's always given back to the community.
"It's part of my life, it's part of who I am," she said.
This time around, her community service was something new, a bit more sweet and born out of a pandemic.
"There's a little silver lining if you look for it, I never would've started this if it hadn't been for the pandemic," Horn said. "There's good in everything."
So far, Horn had donated over 400 pounds of dog food to local churches and the San Diego food bank.
Click here for more information on Twoee's Howling Good Ice Cream.
This story was originally published by Vanessa Paz on KGTV in San Diego.