Ralph’s celebrates 15 years

Ralph’s Italian Ices of Rockville Centre and Franklin Square recently celebrated their 15 year anniversary.

Both stores, which are owned by Mike and Gilda Bilardello, opened in August, 1998. To celebrate, the Bilardello’s were giving away free ices, ice cream and frozen yogurt to anyone with a coupon for it.

Ralph’s doesn’t just serve up Italian ices. Both locations are known for giving back and donating to the community.

“We give mostly to things related to children and schools,” said Gilda Bilardello. “My kids are in the school district, and they’ve done so much with and for my kids.”

Bilardello has donated to the Rockville Centre and Franklin Square little leagues, PTAs and the public library. In Rockville Centre, she has also given to the Best Buddies program at South Side High School, the basketball league, the Youth Council, the Mayor’s Task Force and more.

“The community just embraced us, so we’ve always given back when we can,” Bilardello said. “Whatever we could do, we did.”

In Rockville Centre, the couple began on Sunrise Highway. But when the lease on that building was up, they had to move. They moved to their current location on North Park Avenue and were happy to see that many of their customers followed them to the new location. In Franklin Square, they’re located on Franklin Avenue.

“These were our two first stores,” Bilardello said. “These are like our babies. We had these stores before we had our children.”

The Bilardellos live in Rockville Centre now and have two sons that both go to the Riverside Elementary School. Bilardello sponsor’s the school’s ice cream party every year.

And Ralph’s continues to give back to the community. It hosted another fundraiser on Tuesday for Rolling River Day Camp, where 10 percent of the profits earned between 6 and 9 p.m. were donated to the camp.

“When we opened up 15 years ago, we didn’t even live in Rockville Centre then,” Bilardello said. “The community just embraced us, so we’ve always given back when we can.”