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Orangeville Dairy Queen sells record-number of Blizzards for Miracle Treat Day

August 21, 2025   ·   0 Comments

Local DQ on track to keep title as Canada’s top fundraising store

By Sam Odrowski

The Orangeville Dairy Queen is on track to be named the number one fundraising store out of 700 locations across Canada for Miracle Treat Day.

After raising more than $33,000 last Thursday, Aug. 14, for SickKids through the Children’s Miracle Network, Orangeville DQ owner John Lockyer is confident 2025 will be the third year his location is named the number one fundraising store in the country.

The local DQ sold just shy of 5,500 Blizzards, compared to nearly 4,270 last year.

In addition to local residents having a strong desire to support the Orangeville DQ’s annual fundraiser for SickKids, the local store has been able to raise the most dollars in all of Canada due to Lockyer’s approach. He donates 100 per cent of the cost of each Blizzard treat, whereas the vast majority of other locations donate the proceeds generated.

“The entire price of the blizzard goes to SickKids,” Lockyer said. “We don’t keep a nickel back to cover any cost whatsoever.”

The Round Up For Kids program, where customers can round up the cost of their order to the nearest dollar, also generates donations for the Orangeville DQ on Miracle Treat Day and the other 364 days of the year.

“It is amazing the impact that people’s extra change can make because we’re looking at three years in a row of raising over $30,000, just from people rounding up their change in the drive-thru,” said Lockyer.

So far in 2025, combining the money raised from both Miracle Treat Day and Round Up For Kids, over $71,000 has been raised, with four months still left on the calendar to generate even more proceeds.

The fact that the Orangeville store tops all other Canadian locations on Miracle Treat Day, including stores in densely populated areas, speaks to the community’s support each year.

“We’re really pleased,” said Lockyer. “For a little Dairy Queen in a little town with 30,000 people, it’s just absolutely amazing.”

Lockyer noted that after Headwaters Health Care Foundation, SickKids Hospital is one other healthcare facility that is likely to touch the lives of Dufferin County residents.

“As we talk to our staff and customers, as we talk to everybody, it’s amazing just how many folks have a story of somebody that they know who SickKids has made a huge difference for,” he explained.

“The impact of these children’s hospitals is just so huge. It’s the reason why we’re so passionate about the Orangeville Dairy Queen being the number one [fundraising store] through Children’s Miracle Network.”

Subrina Kulasegaram and her son Maxen, 8, who is the SickKids patient ambassador, were at the local DQ on Aug. 14 for Miracle Treat Day. Lockyer showed Maxen how to make blizzards, and he helped to make the day a success.

Kulasegaram found out Maxen had a serious heart defect in utero and had three major surgeries at SickKids Hospital to correct it. After he was born, he was also diagnosed with esophageal atresia and required two more surgeries to fix it.

Now, he’s a healthy, active eight-year-old who plays baseball and leads a happy life, thanks to the healthcare professionals at SickKids.

“We will always support anything to do with SickKids and the Miracle Network. What they do in those hospitals is extraordinary. If those walls could speak, the stories they could tell,” Kulasegaram told the Citizen of why her family supports SickKids and Miracle Treat Day.

“They work so hard; they go above and beyond and they treat each family like it’s their own. They really do offer precision healthcare, and help each child’s fight against their diagnosis – they come to battle every day. We cannot thank them enough for everything that they’ve done for our son and for all the kids that go there.”

Lockyer said his DQ’s success with Miracle Treat Day and the round-up program is thanks to the generosity of the local community.

“We just want to thank Orangeville, because it’s amazing… that our restaurant here can raise all this money,” he enthused. “It’s a community event, and we can’t ever thank [the community] enough for the support. There’s folks who have supported us every one of the years we’ve been doing this.”

Over 60 local businesses placed pre-orders for Blizzards on Miracle Treat Day, and many more showed up on the day of to support the cause.

Members of Orangeville Fire, Dufferin Ontario Provincial Police, Dufferin Paramedics and other organizations worked the drive-thru on Miracle Treat Day, truly making it a community effort.

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