By Lauren Cowin
Campaign promises don’t always come to fruition, but Brandon Taub was determined not to be that kind of politician.
Taub was so committed that he managed a surprise delivery of 130 milkshakes to his classmates this spring.
The Severn School senior ran for sixth-grade class president in 2016 on a platform of being a good leader, listening to the people and obtaining a milkshake machine for the school.
He soon learned that lofty goals are sometimes easier to express than obtain.
“Everyone was like, ‘Yeah, I voted for you. I can’t wait to see that milkshake machine,’” Taub recalled. “I got elected and I was so happy, and after many failed attempts of talking to the principal and talking to other student council members, they’re like, ‘Yeah, this isn’t going to happen,’ and I was very upset.”
Taub’s constituents didn’t go easy on him, either.
“There were people in their presidency speeches up until high school [who] would say, ‘And I’m not going to make any fake campaign promises unlike some people’ and then they’d look at me,” Taub said.
While the missing milkshake machine served as a running joke for many of his friends over the course of their years at Severn, Taub never let himself off the hook for his campaign vow.
“I’ve got to get everybody milkshakes before I leave this school,” Taub thought.
As the clock ticked on his senior year, Taub got serious about his planning. With some help from his parents and financial backing from his school, he connected with Gary Feldman, who owns the Bruster’s Ice Cream shops in Severna Park and Glen Burnie.
“How much fun can we have with this?” was Feldman’s reaction when he learned of the project. “We definitely wanted to participate in something that shows drive, it shows responsibility, it shows fun.”
The logistics of transporting 130 milkshakes took some creativity. It was decided that Bruster’s would pre-scoop the ice cream into individual cups, hard freeze them and Taub would later pour the milk and blend them onsite, using one of Bruster’s machines. To solve the issue of storage, Chartwell Golf & Country Club stepped up and allowed Bruster’s to deliver the ice cream to its freezers, which Taub later picked up and transported to the school.
All of this happened unbeknownst to Taub’s classmates.
“It was so difficult to keep this thing a secret,” Taub said.
On the appointed day, the senior class held a class meeting, during which Taub requested to make an announcement, he said.
With a milkshake in hand, Taub took to the podium and proclaimed that later that day, he would fulfill a promise he made years ago.
“Everyone was, like, freaking out,” Taub said.
Despite a deluge of rain causing the event to be held inside, the milkshakes were delivered without a hitch, and the Severn School class of 2023 can enter the next chapter of their lives with their faith in elected officials restored.
Taub formerly owned Flying Cow Organics, a dairy delivery service. His background in the field offered some self-assurance for this project.
“If anyone can deliver 130 milkshakes, I think I’m the guy to do it,” Taub said. “I thought I was done with dairy until this project.”
Taub intends to attend the University of Delaware beginning this fall, and his current plans involve neither politics nor dairy, but a degree in engineering.