Recently, CBS News aired an interview with DQ® franchisee Hamid Chaudhry, and it is a fantastic story about a person who has made a difference in his community, his family and to the Dairy Queen system. I often think about what it takes to be successful in life and in business, and I think this story helps answer this question. It is about making a difference! It is about waking up everyday and thinking about how we can make a positive impact on those around us. Please listen to the CBS News interview or read the related story that was published in the New York Times. One of the great things about Dairy Queen is that we have a lot of team members and franchisee business owners who are making a difference in their community every day. Thank you!
American Dairy Queen believes in giving back to the communities in which we live, work and do business – it’s simply one of the core values of our corporation.
This fall we held a backpack drive at our corporate offices to benefit Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People – a local organization better known as VEAP. We stuffed almost 50 backpacks full of all the school supplies for local children!
As the school year kicks off what volunteer opportunities do you most look forward to at your local schools?
Backpacks were stuffed with all necessary school supplies!
Thanks to all of our loyal DQ® customers who went out and bought Blizzard® Treats on Miracle Treat Day on August 11!
DQ has been raising funds for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals for 27 years now, and we’ve raised almost $90 million during this time. Miracle Treat Day is our signature fundraising event, and we appreciate all of you treating yourselves AND helping kids in need! Donations for Miracle Treat Day are still coming in, but we’re expecting to have a donation of over $4 million for CMN Hospitals from just this one day!
Want to hear another really cool thing that happened this year? Franchisee Delon Mork challenged his town of 6,000 people to purchase 25,000 Blizzard treats on Miracle Treat Day. If they met the goal – he said he’d jump out of a plane! The town of Madison, SD, rose to the challenge… check out the link to Delon’s jump below!
Earlier this summer I learned that a friend of mine has been going through a very difficult time. Her three-year-old daughter, Rachel, had been hospitalized with a serious illness. Rachel’s kidneys had partially failed, allowing toxins to travel to both sides of her brain. Although dialysis eventually restored her kidney function, Rachel has a long road of rehabilitation ahead as she works to recover from the resulting brain injury.
Rachel is now being treated at Gillette Children’s Hospital, which is the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital for the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Thanks to my friend’s frequent Facebook updates, I’ve followed Rachel’s progress as she undergoes daily physical and occupational therapy sessions, has re-learned to smile and laugh, and as she fights to regain her ability to speak. One after another, the tiny miracles are adding up.
Every year on Miracle Treat Day, I visit a participating DQ® location to buy a Blizzard® Treat for myself during my lunch break. In the evening I return to buy another for myself and more for my family members. I’ve always been proud to support Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, and happy to have a reason to double-dip on treats once a year. But this year it has taken on an extra special meaning, since I know those treats I’ll be buying will directly support the hospital that is helping my friend and her daughter.
Today is Miracle Treat Day. Stop at a participating DQ location (find the one nearest you at http://miracletreatday.com), pick up a Blizzard Treat for yourself, and maybe one for a friend as well. Because you never know who might be needing help from your local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. As for me, I’m going for Rachel.
What is it about growing up with the DQ® system that was a direct correlation with the size of the products my parents would allow me to order? My first memory is of a push-up style soft-serve treat I could get myself out of the self-serve freezer at my local DQ store. While I would have preferred to get the same Peanut Buster® Parfait my Dad would order, he would always talk me into something smaller because he knew my eyes were bigger than stomach.
As I grew older and started grade school, I moved through ordering the other novelties, including the DQ Sandwich, Dilly® Bars of various flavors and the Buster Bar®. Then I can remember going through a Strawberry Sundae phase in about 6th grade. I would occasionally switch up the flavors—sometimes hot fudge, sometimes caramel.
When I got my first driver’s license, my favorite product was a Crunch Cone because it was easy to handle in the car. Then, by the time I was graduating high school, the Blizzard® Flavor Treat was rolled out, introducing me to a whole new delicious treat platform.
However, with the recent introduction of the Mini Blizzard size, the pattern has shifted. Now I’m able to still get all the same great taste of a Blizzard Treat, but as a smaller indulgence with little guilt.
My past memories of the DQ system just show how this brand has something for everyone. Do you remember how your DQ purchases have changed over the years?
I love theater- music, drama, dance…the arts. Just love all of it. One of my earliest memories is as a tiny girl going to see The Nutcracker Ballet with my parents. If I close my eyes I can still see that stage and the dancers. Wonderful!
I am currently assisting one of our local community theater groups with props for their April production. With most of our city currently buried under several feet of snow, garage sales are out of the question. Rats. Thank goodness for second-hand stores, discount stores and online sale sites.
I have made a connection in the last couple of days that will help me find the last bits of furniture I will need for our set. Connections. That’s really what it’s all about isn’t it? Connecting with others in your community, building relationships and getting to know people…really know them, not just the “Hi,” “Bye,” “I’ve seen you in the community,” kind of know.
This kind of connection is what American Dairy Queen Corporation upholds as one of our values — giving back to the communities in which we live, work and do business. It’s one of the reasons I’m so proud to be part of the DQ Family.
What kinds of things are you doing in your community?
I received a customer letter at the corporate offices that made me chuckle. It seems a girl and her friend decided to go to their local DQ® restaurant’s drive-thru after a basketball game. Not surprisingly, they needed to peruse the drive-thru menu board for a few seconds before ordering. What was surprising though was that once they placed their order, the employee kept saying “excuse me?” as if she couldn’t hear the order.
The girl and her friend repeated their order a few times, but still the employee couldn’t hear them. Finally, the customer heard a much larger male voice loudly say, “Ma’am, you are speaking into the bird house. Could you please pull ahead 10 feet and repeat your order into the intercom?”
The girls says she and her friend were so embarrassed and laughing so hard, they just pulled out of the drive-thru lane and drove away. Have you ever had an embarrassing DQ moment?
I recently heard a really funny story from my husband’s cousin. She made a last-minute decision to go out into the snowy evening with her two small sons to get treats from the local DQ® store. Because it was so snowy and cold, she chose to order their malts at the drive-thru window. She moved on to the pick-up window to await the treats.
As she was sitting with her window open waiting for the employee to finish the malts and hand them out to her, a huge pile of snow slid off the DQ roof right into her car! She was so shocked and surprised that her first thought was that the DQ employee had thrown snow at her.
It wasn’t until she left the drive-thru lane that she thought of the perfect comeback to her shocking situation, “I didn’t order a Blizzard®!” Have you ever had something funny happen to you at a DQ drive-thru window?
I recently received a customer letter at the corporate DQ® headquarters about how a family knew they would be taking their beloved pet to the veterinarian for the last time. Because they made it a ritual to take Patches to the local DQ restaurant for a hamburger as a treat after every vet appointment, this time the family took her to the restaurant before the final appointment.
The family went through the drive-thru lane to pick up the hamburger, and was surprised to receive the hamburger free of charge because the employee was so sorry about the unfortunate day. The owners of that little dog will always remember that employee’s act of concern and caring.
Sometimes it can be such a simple act of kindness that can help someone through a difficult time. This is an excellent example about how the DQ system could help someone feel just a little bit better.
What have you done to help someone through a difficult time?
Everyone appreciates cards, letters and flowers when they’re staying in the hospital, but one DQ customer received something a little different many years ago after a tragic car accident—a $1 DQ Cone coupon—and still remembers that interesting gift today.
It seems the customer was a good friend of the local DQ store operator. When that operator heard about the car accident, he sent a card to his loyal customer and friend in the hospital. It had been a serious accident. The customer had been pronounced dead at the scene, but was fortunately resuscitated only a few minutes later and was in the hospital recovering from a broken neck, reconstructed hand, stitches upon stitches, two black eyes and many other injuries.
This DQ operator wanted to lighten the mood during the difficult recovery process, so he included a coupon for a $1 cone to encourage the customer to get better and visit the DQ store soon. According to the customer’s daughter, this was the first time her father had laughed since the accident.
Many DQ operators become close friends with their customers, and often their locations become an important part of the community. Can you think of a time when you helped someone or someone helped you create a positive memory in the middle of a difficult time?
