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“I’m going to try out for the volleyball team!” my favorite 12-year-old announced with enthusiasm.
I looked at all 4’11” of her and immediately had this image of her lost in a sea of tall tween girls who have already started their growth spurt. As my fears of her disappearing into disappointment started to swirl, I saw an email pop up on my computer screen.
It was about DeLon Mork. He’s a guy who knows all about going up against the big guys. See, DeLon owns the only Dairy Queen restaurant in Madison, S.D. He’s also a two-time cancer survivor who loves to beat the odds.
Maybe that’s why he was so excited when he heard about a contest in August in which Dairy Queens across the United States and Canada compete to see who could sell the most Blizzards in a single day. All proceeds would funnel through Children’s Miracle Network and stay right in each DQ’s hometown.
“That’s the contest for us!” DeLon declared back in 2006.
Was he nuttier than the crunchy topping on a DQ sundae? Did he really think his one store in Madison, S.D., population 6,000, could outsell DQ’s in California? Texas? New Jersey? With all their big-time cities?
“That first year I set the bar at 1,000 Blizzards,” DeLon reminisced when I tracked him down in Madison. “I told my young staff if we sold that many, I would shave my head.”
They did it!
That was six years ago. Each year since, DeLon has raised the bar, and the staff has come up with tougher stunts. This year, he really started talking like his brain had just gone through the blender.
“25,000!” he decided. “We are going to sell 25,000 Blizzards on Miracle Treat Day and yet again beat out every DQ in North America!”
How’d that go? Do the math — that’s more than four Blizzards for each person living in Madison.
Let’s just say if you look up into the skies above Madison, S.D., next week, you just might see someone who looks an awful lot like DeLon jumping out of an airplane.
Truth be told, he’s not too excited about the idea. But a deal’s a deal. And he’s thrilled that all the proceeds from those 25,000 Blizzards will be staying right there helping sick and injured kids in the Madison area.
“When I first heard your story,” I confessed to DeLon, “I thought, ‘That’s not fair — the small town Dairy Queens competing against the big guys.”
“You’re right,” he agreed. “We small towns have the total advantage.” DeLon pointed out to me that little ol’ Madison has community pride working for it. The DQ also isn’t lost in a huge metropolis and an ocean of fast-food restaurants.
DeLon helped me see that something we might consider a setback might actually be an advantage. It’s all how you look at it.
I kept that in mind as I stopped by the middle school gym to watch my favorite 12-year-old at the volleyball tryouts. Sure enough, there was a rainforest worth of tall, gangly girls. Scooting her away around the taller girls was a pint-sized dynamo zipping around the court with greater speed, using her shorter height to get up under the ball for graceful sets.
We don’t know yet if she made the team, but it sure was a treat to watch her go for it and learn how to look at things differently this week. The treat of the week, you might say.
Daryn Kagan is the creator of DarynKagan.com, She is the author of “What’s Possible! 50 True Stories of People Who Dared To Dream They Could Make a Difference.”
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