A number of Bahamians skipped the sweltering heat and flocked to Dairy Queen (DQ) on Thursday in an effort to fill their cravings for ice cream while saving the lives of thousands of sick children in The Bahamas.

Two dollars from every blizzard, the popular ice cream treat, sold went towards helping a sick child in the country as part of DQ’s first ever Miracle Treat Day.

The local store seeks to assist 3,000 children, particularly six-year-old Zion Knowles who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at the age of four.

Assistant Manager at DQ Harbour Bay Owen Pinder said that sales were going extremely well, adding that companies have been ordering the blizzards in bulk.

Mr. Pinder who has been an employee with DQ for nearly five years said that he admires their willingness to always give back to the community.

“Normally Dairy Queen always tries to give back but this is something new and as an employee, I’m just excited that they are doing something like this for the kids, because they really need it, our kids are really suffering, it’s really great that we are doing something to support them,” he said.

The one day promotion started at 11:00 a.m. and ended at 10:00 p.m.

However, you can still purchase coupons worth $5.25 which can be used up to August 21 and the proceeds will still go towards the cause.

Cancer survivor and founder of Freedom Survivor – a cancer support group for young adults Melissa Major expressed thanks to DQ for creating awareness for the diseases like cancer which plague the lives of many children in the country whose families face up to a $5,000 cost for medication alone.

“This is important because with kid’s cancer, it’s hard for a parent to have to see their child go through this and the treatment on the kids sometimes can take a long time because sometimes when their diagnosed they barley have a childhood because the treatment sometimes last two to three years,” she said.

“The good thing is that with the advancement in treatment in cancer today, the kids are responding a whole lot better. We know for sure that we have 100 kids or more that have cancer here in The Bahamas, it’s a small community that we have but it’s also an expensive disease and what DQ is doing is tremendous, it’s a great opportunity to give back and it’s a great opportunity to eat ice cream.”

The promotion was held at all four dairy queen locations – Cable Beach, Southwest Plaza, Mall at Marathon and Harbour Bay.