Sweet-toothed Islanders lined up to get their first Dairy Queen fix of the season on Friday. By 2 pm, around a dozen hungry customers were already waiting in line. At precisely 2 pm, as promised, the sign went from “closed” to “open,” and Brian Stanton’s sons, Jake and Cameron Stanton, were all smiles as they got to be the first customers of the season.
Slipper-wearing Ben deBettencourt and Andrew Carroll ordered doubles. “More for later,” said deBettencourt.
The Dairy Queen on Upper Main Street in Edgartown, despite being a national chain, has indeed been accepted as a local favorite. Its opening marks the commencement of the Vineyard peak season, a haven for sandy-toed beachgoers, tourists and Islanders alike.
A Vineyard staple, Dairy Queen caters to thousands of families, the annual reopening being a local sign that spring has come. DQ manager Jon Baxter expected to sell over 200 Blizzards on opening day alone.
DQ owner Christopher Celeste has been working with the Martha’s Vineyard Boys and Girls Club, committing to donating 5 percent of the ice cream shop’s sales to the organization for the second year.
“By giving a nickel from every dollar spent at DQ to the club, we are creating a giving campaign that turns every DQ customer into a supporter of the Boys & Girls Club, while also modeling how local businesses can serve as social impact engines for Island nonprofits,” said Celeste in a press release announcing the continuation of the collaboration. “We have hundreds of families and young people visit us every season, and we want to use that visibility to amplify the club’s good work.”
“It’s terrific to see a business design a social impact campaign specifically designed to help us fund ongoing programming, and to simultaneously engage the broader community in the effort,” Dhakir Warren, M.V. Boys & Girls Club’s executive director, said in the release.
I have to say that a visit to DQ in not on my list of things to do in the summer. But I think it’s a great thing that they are here. I am especially impressed that they donate 5 % of SALES to the boys and girls club.
I wish them a successful summer.
When I was a boy summering on the Vineyard in the early ‘70s along one of the coves of Tisbury Great Pond, a mile and a half of dirt road from Edgartown Road just west of the airport, my brothers, cousins and I would spend half the day riding our bikes back and forth to the DQ, just to take advantage of a coupon for a 15 cent Dilly Bar.
Shame that kids today are no longer entrusted with such independent adventures, despite no indication of increased danger. Let’s hope future generations beat back the blight of safetyism that continues to surge in our culture.
A lifelong attachment to the DQ was born in those days and I can’t wait to get back to MV and the DQ this summer! As a rule i prefer to let people choose their own charities and am opposed to Corporate Woke-ism, but I’ll make an exception for the MV DQ!
As far as to who the business owners decide to donate to, once you pay for your blizzard, the money is no longer yours and you have no say in what the business owners decide to do with it. Other then no longer going to the business. And since you are making an exception for the local DQ, I’d say your opposition to “corporate woke-ism” isn’t as strong as you believe it is…
You always have a say in where you buy food.
You can buy your food where some of your money goes to support things you want to support.
America is waking up.
What do you mean despite being a national chain store? Black Dog, Vineyard Vines, Ace Hardware, West Marine, their is a long list of chain stores here on the island.
We should have more chains like Olive Garden, Walmart and Dollar Tree.
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