By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
It’s been a dilly of a week for thousands of students and others in Bowling Green.
Manny Patel, the owner with his wife Doli of the Bowling Green Dairy Queen, recently distributed nearly 6,000 DQ Dilly® Bars across the city to celebrate their daughter Yana’s third birthday.
The ice cream bars—traditionally made of DQ’s soft serve ice cream with a chocolate, cherry or butterscotch coating—were delivered last week to students at Bowling Green schools and other city and county employees, including those at the BG Fire and Police Divisions, Sheriff’s Department, City Building, Health Department, Wood Haven, Chamber of Commerce, County Building, and Jobs and Family Services, BG Rotary Club and Falcon Sports.
The Patels hosted Yana’s party a week before her Nov. 16 birthday, complete with presents, balloons, cakes, candles and more. The ice cream bars were sort of the icing on the cake for the lively and loving three-year-old’s celebration. Sharing the treats for her birthday was a way to honor her and introduce her to the family’s new city.
More importantly, Patel handed out thousands of the Dilly® Bars to give back to the community that has welcomed the family and supported their business.
“Growing up in India, I was raised to give back to others,” he said. Sharing good fortune with others is a common practice for birthdays and other ceremonies.
In fact, the family has hosted magnificent birthday parties in Yana’s three years. For her first birthday, the year of COVID-19, they returned to India to be with family. They welcomed about 1,000 mostly family members for the outdoor party, a number which was much smaller than Manny and Doli’s 4,000-person wedding. They believe it’s important to share the milestones with family and friends.
This was not the first year Patel has delivered Dilly® Bars to service providers and students. He dreamed up the plan for her second birthday when they owned a Dairy Queen in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. There, he also delivered about 5,000 of the ice cream treats to thank the community.
Already the birthday wishes and thanks for the ice cream were coming back to Yana and her parents. “Happy Birthday Yana and thank you to Manny at BG Dairy Queen for the Dilly Bars to help celebrate,” the Bowling Green Fire Division posted on their Facebook page.
Bowling Green Montessori School students made a giant thank-you card and posted, “Thank you to @bgdairy_queen for donating dilly bars to our school today! It was a nice, sweet treat for everyone.”
On Thursday, her actual birthday, Patel will offer one more treat—a small ice cream cone—for children under 10 who visit the restaurant with a parent, grandparent or guardian.
