FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio - Part of the fun of being a teenager is doing goofy things that hopefully don't get you into trouble. That was the idea four Fairview High School seniors - Scott Dunn, Chris Gillmore, Colin Schmitz and Mike McCaffery - had in the summer of 2011 when they started a tradition now called the Ice Cream Roll.

"Bikes are your first ticket to freedom as a kid, and ice cream is a dessert everyone can enjoy," said Dunn, a 2012 Fairview High School graduate. "The Ice Cream Roll came about while we were looking for something fun to do in high school. Our friends all enjoyed biking around town.

"With a high concentration of ice cream shops in and around Fairview Park, we decided to combine two activities we enjoy doing into one event. The rest is history."

Added Gillmore, "We were always looking for something different to do, and we noticed along Lorain Road in Fairview at that time there was a ridiculous amount of ice cream shops."

The seventh annual Ice Cream Roll, which took place July 20, found the four longtime buddies and 2012 Fairview High School graduates joined by friends for yet another tasty treat excursion, which is similar to an adults-only affair.

"It's the underage version of a beer crawl," Gillmore said. "At the time, we were 17 years old and in high school. We just liked hanging out. There was also a component of let's see how much ice cream we can eat."

And boy, did they eat. The inaugural Ice Cream Roll visited five different locations. After so much ice cream, the notion of the roll makes more sense.

"We were very full," Gillmore said. "The roll was a reference to our biking, but especially the first year that's kind of where it ended up. You wanted to roll home because it's a little rough."

When it comes to the rules of the Ice Cream Roll, Dunn said the group likes to play fast and loose regarding which establishments are visited from year to year. The most recent affair included stops at Mitchell's in Rocky River, as well as Webber's, Dariview and East Coast.

"It's a careful give and take between distance and ice cream," Dunn said. "We also start in the evening, so we work against closing times. We've had as many as six (stops), but this year we rode longer and scaled back to four stops with a bonus stop at 808 Ice - a breach in our dairy-based etiquette, but we're open to new things."

What started out as nothing more than a group of buddies hanging out has grown over the years to include new friends. This year's Ice Cream Roll had roughly a dozen participants with Gillmore thinking it could become a family tradition.

"Even if we weren't all living in the Cleveland area, we could meet up with our families," Gillmore said. "It would be a great bike ride and social event. I'm hoping it's something that will span generations."