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Miracle Treat Day running all week long locally

October 29, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

The 19^th Annual Miracle Treat Day for Dairy Queen’s across Canada is today, but the local store has extended the fundraiser to run all week long.

From Oct. 25 to 31, Orangeville Dairy Queen (540 Riddel Rd.) is donating 100 per cent of the proceeds from Blizzard sales to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, which is the closest children’s hospital to the local community.

The local Dairy Queen is hoping to raise $60,000 this year, which will push the store’s total donation towards Sick Kids Hospital to over $800,000, through Miracle Treat Day.

“We already are at just under $20,000 from folks rounding up their change at the drive thru window – we do it on and off all year,” Lockyer told the Citizen during an interview late last week. “I think we’ve got a good shot at hitting the [$60,000] target… the community is just so amazing.”

A little over $50,000 was raised for Sick Kids by the Orangeville Dairy Queen last year, according to Lockyer. He noted that his store places first for highest donations every year in all of Eastern Canada, while placing second for all of Canada.

“We’re always shooting for number one in the country,” says Lockyer.

While donating the full value of each Blizzard for the Miracle Treat Day initiative certainly helps the local Dairy Queen generate more revenue, Lockyer notes that it’s the sheer volume of Orangeville residents coming out to support the effort that makes it so successful.

With the initiative running all week, he says he’s encouraging people to buy coupons for a Blizzard now until Oct. 31, as 100 per cent of those proceeds will be donated to Sick Kids, but the cold treat can be redeemed anytime.

“If folks can participate it’s great because as I say, the community has been so generous to us during COVID, our business has been good and we’ve maintained, so by us donating everything back [of the Blizzards], it’s giving back to the community,” explains Lockyer.

As a whole, Miracle Treat Day proceeds are donated to 12 Children’s Miracle Network member hospitals across Canada, based on their proximity to each Dairy Queen franchise.

On average 35,000 children use the network hospitals in North America each week.

Since the Miracle Treat Day partnership began 37 years ago, Dairy Queen has donated $44 million in Canada alone.

Lockyer notes that he’s incredibly grateful to the people of Orangeville and the surrounding area for their continuous support of the annual Miracle Treat Day.

 “I just want to thank everybody in Orangeville, like they have been so generous every year… the community is awesome,” Lockyer smiled.

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