By Sheldon Spackman

Red Deer Dairy Queen locations set to mark $1 million raised for Children’s Miracle Network

Aug 4, 2018 | 6:00 AM

A major fundraising milestone will be celebrated in our city next week.

Red Deer’s Dairy Queen locations are set to surpass the $1 million fundraising mark for the Children’s Miracle Network through Miracle Treat Day, becoming just the second franchisee family in Canada to do so.

Drew Hamill, General Manager for Red Deer Dairy Queen says they are both humbled and overwhelmed by the achievement.

“We’ve been in the community for 50 years now and we enjoy being involved in the community,” states Hamill. “It’s something where we believe that if you take care of the community, they take care of you in return and it’s something that our staff have completely bought into. Over the past few years we’ve really stepped up our fundraising probably in the last I’d say 10 years everything really started and took off.”

This year, Miracle Treat Day is Thurs. August 9 with net proceeds from Blizzard Treat sales at participating locations to be donated to the 14 Children’s Miracle Network member hospitals across Canada, including the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton and Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary.

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Hamill says helping children in need is a cause close to his family’s heart.

“We’ve just always believed in taking care of kids in the community. Their kind of the one demographic that can’t help themselves, and so we’ve always took a special interest in making sure we can help those who can’t help themselves.”

Hamill says seeing the impact this fundraising has had on children in our own community keeps the family motivated to maintain their efforts in this regard.

“We have gone and represented Canada at the Children’s Miracle Network celebration down in Orlando, Florida a couple of times,” says Hamill. “I’ve personally witnessed people stand up out of a wheelchair and walk across a stage to accept a medal for being a Miracle Child that year where their parents are just blown away that they’re brave enough to stand up and try and walk.”

Being a third generation member of the Hamill family to own and operate the Dairy Queen locations in Red Deer, Hamill says reaching this milestone is also a great opportunity to say ‘Thank You’ to the community for all of its support over the past 51 years.

“We’re a town of 100,000 people and we’ve raised over $1 million,” states Hamill. “That’s something that doesn’t happen very often, the only other one that’s happened is out in Ontario where there’s obviously a lot more population out there. The biggest thing I can say is our staff are unbelievable, it does not take much to motivate them which is something that is a true testament to them.”

On Miracle Treat Day, if a Red Deer Dairy Queen staff member donates a portion of their wages to the Children’s Miracle Network, the Hamills will match their donation, in addition to donating all proceeds from Blizzard sales that day.

The Hamill family became franchisees in 1967 when Drew’s grandparents Gordon and Heather bought Red Deer’s first Dairy Queen at the downtown location. It was later passed on to their son Rob and his wife Rhonda in the early 1980s. Gordon and Heather’s younger son Dean owns and operates the north hill location while Rob’s son Drew and younger sister Justine also manage the family business.