There’s nothing quite like Miracle Treat Day in Madison, South Dakota.
“There’s no other place to go eat today, but Dairy Queen, of course,” Madison resident Kathy Lindsay said. “So, here we are!”
It’s a national event at all participating Dairy Queen locations to support Children’s Miracle Network hospitals.
In eastern South Dakota, that’s Sanford Children’s.
“Dairy Queens in eastern South Dakota and southwestern Minnesota donate a dollar (per Blizzard sold) back to Sanford Children’s and it all is going to stay local and make a big impact for our patients,” Sanford Health Foundation’s lead development officer Bethany Olson said.
“Children’s Miracle Network at Sanford Children’s supports things like child life, our chaplain, we fund meal vouchers, mileage, lodging, things like that for patients who are traveling from out of town, just to take that burden away from them,” Olson added. “We also help purchase some of the equipment that’s available to our patients. For example, in the NICU, the Giraffe OmniBeds and the ventilators are all funded through philanthropy and days like Miracle Treat Day.”
That impact for patients over the last two decades has surpassed $1 million at the Dairy Queen in Madison.
“Unbelievable,” owner DeLon Mork said. “We live in an unbelievably, unbelievably generous community.”
Community-wide cause
This Dairy Queen has been in Mork’s family for more than six decades since his parents purchased it in 1964. After his own battle with cancer, his mom’s passing from her struggles with diabetes followed by his dad’s battle with Stage 4 cancer – all within a few short years – this cause is close to his heart.
“It drove my dad crazy that families were struggling,” Mork said. “And ironically or miraculously, the next year, this concept had evolved to take care of children and families.”
Mork’s dad passed away in 2004 and the next year, Miracle Treat Day was born nationwide and Mork knew it was fate.
His parents would be proud.
“The fact that this community has helped them raise a million dollars would blow their mind,” he added.
Over the years, through business partnerships and community relationships, the impact around this event grows every year.
South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden wrote a proclamation to rename the city of Madison “Miracle City.”
The city’s mayor Roy Lindsay did the same in recognition of the event.
The local university, Dakota State, changed its name for that day from DSU to “DQU.”
“I mean, it’s on and on and on, but that’s the kind of community we live in,” Mork said. “That’s the spirit of Madison.”
Help for local families
The impact makes a big difference to families who need it most, like the Ragsdale family of Madison, who felt that need firsthand in 2023 with their youngest son Owen.
“That summer, he was kind of falling down a lot,” Owen’s dad Chance Ragsdale told Sanford Health News. “During flag football, he was complaining about leg pain, having cramps and some other things. So, we took him into our local clinic and then they referred him to Sanford.”
They took one X-ray and diagnosed Owen with Legg-Calve-Perthes disease which occurs in children when blood supply to the femoral head of the hip joint is temporarily interrupted, and the bone begins to die.
“One in 100,000 kids get it – ages 4 to 10,” Ragsdale said.
Owen was placed in a wheelchair, wore leg braces and in 2025 underwent surgery to cut his hip bone, turn the hip in, and add a temporary plate and six screws to protect the femoral head.
The Ragsdales spent many nights in the Sanford Children’s Hospital and were grateful for the care of Owen and their family.
“He’s doing good,” Chance said. “He gets sore after a long time. He wanted to walk without his walker today, so we have it in the car just in case, but he uses it to just keep his balance up. He has a lift in his right shoe to balance him out. … We’ll have to undergo multiple surgeries throughout this process. Long journey yet ahead of him, but he’s come a long ways, and he’s a super positive, resilient kid.”
And so, Owen’s care journey continues.
“We go into the doctor about every four to eight weeks and they do an X-ray to see where it’s at and see how it’s progressing. Then the doctor decides what we’re going to do for eight weeks. So, the goal was to get him to walk into school for the first time in two years, and I think that we might achieve that this year,” Chance added.
‘Rallying around our castle and our kids’
When she gets to know patients’ families, Olson sees the connection between the community and the hospital known as “the castle.”
“So many of the families that we serve say, ‘we drove past the castle so many times,’ or ‘we bought Blizzards 10 years ago and now we are bringing our kid to the castle for surgery’ or because they have cancer or things like that. You never really know when you’re going to need the services of Sanford Children’s Hospital, but everyone is so grateful that it is here in South Dakota when they do need it,” Olson said.
The Ragsdales call Madison a “class-act city” and feel grateful to be a part of it.
“There is so much that happens at Sanford Children’s Hospital that wouldn’t be available without philanthropy. So those child life specialists that mean so much to the care for families, the chaplain that cares for both families and staff when things are hard, none of that would be available without Miracle Treat Day,” Olson said. “This Dairy Queen in particular making such a big impact, rallying around our castle and our kids, we’re so grateful.”
With 42,846 Blizzards sold that day and $163,587 raised, call it the sweetest way to give back.
“There’s no better cause, really. I can’t think of a better cause,” Lindsay said. “Our kids are our future, and we need to help them in every way we can.”
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Posted In Children's, Community, Foundation
