A midtown Mobile ice cream shop once again stretched the limits of dessert-making over the weekend, building a 60-foot banana split on the campus of the University of South Alabama as part of the fifth annual Funky Monkey 5K and fun run.
Cammie’s Old Dutch Ice Cream has made the massive dessert a tradition at the event, adding a few feet to the split’s length nearly every year since the race began. Camilla Petrie-Wayne, who runs the shop, said the team tries to top itself each time.
This year’s creation required roughly 202.5 gallons of vanilla, strawberry and chocolate ice cream, 160 bananas sliced in half, ten bottles of chocolate syrup and six cans of whipped cream. It took a crew of six people to assemble the entire thing on site.
The banana split was the centerpiece of a race that drew close to 400 runners and walkers to the university for the fun run and 5K, an event organized by Thompson Engineering to benefit the Thompson Foundation. Proceeds from registration fees go toward the foundation’s charitable work in the Mobile area.
As part of the event, teams competed to see who could recruit the most supporters to register and participate. Gulf Coast Dementia Services topped the leaderboard this year, earning a $1,000 check from the Thompson Foundation for having the largest group of backers signed up for the race.
The Funky Monkey 5K has grown into one of the more lighthearted fixtures on the Mobile-area spring calendar, blending a competitive run with family-friendly attractions like the banana split build. Runners and spectators alike gather around as the ice cream shop’s crew works to assemble the dessert, often finishing the build not long after the race concludes.
Organizers say the event’s combination of fitness and community fundraising has helped it grow steadily since it began five years ago, drawing participants from across the University of South Alabama community as well as area residents who come out each year specifically for the race and its now-famous banana split tradition.
Details on next year’s race, including registration information, are typically released through Thompson Engineering and the University of South Alabama athletics and recreation departments closer to race day.