Some of the concoctions available. (COURTESY GOOD VIBES)

Know what’s even cooler than ice on a hot summer day?

Shaved ice. With all different kinds of flavors mixed in. And candy on top.

Now, that’s cool.

But where can you get it? Glad you asked. Right here in Dracut at Good Vibes Shaved Ice.

The Dracut-based mobile business, run by husband-and-wife team Ben and Sarah Waggy, has Brox Farm, 1276 Broadway Road, as its home base, and you can often find them there, dishing out frozen treats.

They also cater to private functions, school gatherings, company outings, music festivals – just about any place where people crave shaved ice.

Sarah is a Dracut native, having grown up as Sarah Sawyer on Peters Pond in East Dracut. Ben is a native Vermonter.

So how did an educator specializing in special education and a mechanical maintenance worker become full-time fulfillers of sweet dreams?

Brox Farm is the home base for Good Vibes Shaved Ice, though they are often found at private events around the area. (COURTESY GOOD VIBES)

It all started in Vermont, where they were living and where Ben’s mother had her own business, Sumptuous Syrups of Vermont, producing syrups used mainly for cocktails.

“We were looking to travel and do something different,” Sarah said. “At the time, Ben’s mother had a business making high-end, natural fruit syrups, and we thought, ‘Well, how can we start a business that can support her business, using her syrups?’ And we came up with shaved ice. So we decided to get into our RV and go on a cross-country road trip.”

They took leaves of absence from their jobs, with assurances from their bosses that they could return when their wanderlust was sated.

“They were, like, you can come back,” Sarah said. “It’s eight years later and we’ve never gone back.”

“We ran the numbers and figured this is something that would be profitable,” Ben said.

Sarah added, “We bought a rinky-dink ice grinder and a tent, came up with a name, shoved everything into the RV and drove to Florida.”

The name they started with was Shaved Ice of Vermont.

In Fort Myers, they hooked up with Southern Fresh Farms and set up shop at a farmer’s market every Saturday before the road beckoned them again.

“We decided to head west and traveled through 22 states selling shaved ice,” Sarah said. “We sold shaved ice everywhere. At a crawfish festival in New Mexico. At a rodeo in Texas. In Utah, California, Washington. And this was before we had the trailer. Back then, all we had was the tent.”

Sarah, Juniper and Ben Waggy aboard the Good Vibes Shaved Ice mobile. (COURTESY GOOD VIBES)

“And an old-fashioned hand shaver,” Ben added.

At some point, they changed the name of the business to Good Vibes, upgraded their ice shaver, and bought the trailer.
According to Sarah, “I saw someone doing a coffee truck out of an old horse trailer, and I said, ‘We need one of those.’ We looked at a lot of trailers and found this one right in Pelham. My dad and

Ben converted it.”

Another change came with the syrups they were using.

“We were only using Ben’s mother’s syrup,” Sarah said. “Finally, we decided there just weren’t enough flavors, so we found a really good supplier in Hawaii where we could get concentrated flavors, and we make our own simple syrup.”

Good Vibes Shaved Ice was getting along just fine until Covid hit in 2020. Like everything else, the business was negatively affected.

“We never used to do roadside sales,” Sarah said. “We’d do festivals and events, but then Covid hit, and all of a sudden our whole calendar got canceled.”

In 2023, Brox Farm approached them about participating in an event, and then asked if they’d like to set up at the farm regularly. At the time, they had been setting up at a gas station in Pelham, and they jumped at the chance to have Brox Farm as a home base.

“Flowers instead of gas pumps? You bet,” Ben said.

Be aware, though, that they are not always at Brox Farm, as their schedule brings them to many private events. They post a weekly schedule on Facebook and Instagram of their whereabouts every Sunday, and they generally take Mondays off.

Having Dracut as a home base also worked out for Sarah because she grew up in town. Before meeting Ben, she worked at several well-known Dracut spots, including The Village Inn and Scola’s Restaurant, and she knows a lot of residents.

“We have a lot of regulars, which is so cool,” Sarah said. “Every year we’ve been in business, we’re just growing.”

“Businesses will have us do employee appreciation parties, and then they keep asking us to come back every year,” Ben said. “When we’re at Brox Farm, we have people come from all over. Some come several times a week. We even have someone come up from Boston because they can’t find good shaved ice anywhere.”

They have the division of labor down pat.

“He is the ice of the operation,” Sarah said. “He supplies the ice — and there’s a lot more to shaved ice than you might think. Ben handles the ice. I do the syrups and the money.”

Sarah said what sets Good Vibes apart from other similar operations is their flavors and the toppings.

“We have mochi-ball toppings and candy and condensed milk, gummies. It just makes it fun and special.”

They’ll keep the trailer open through September, then head back to Florida for the winter. That may change in the near future, as Sarah and Ben added to their family three years ago, when daughter Juniper was born. They know they’ll have to settle in one place when Juniper starts school.

In the meantime, they’ll be happy making Dracut and beyond a little cooler.

“We love doing this and being able to travel.”