HOISINGTON – The Hoisington Chamber of Commerce coffee group gathered Thursday to be treated by the Hoisington Dairy Queen. The Dairy Queen is celebrating 70 years in business. 

This was just part of week of special treats for the public that ends Sunday with a birthday party from 1-4 p.m. at the DQ. They will serve dessert, Dairy Queen treats and cookies, and will hand out prizes.

This caps a week of festivities that featured such specials as 70 cent ice cream cones, 70 cent fries, 70 cent hamburgers and 70 cent sundaes.

Hosting the Chamber coffee were franchise owners Becky and Leon Steiner and their daughter Amber. Becky and Leon, who have guided the business for the past 38 years, related the store’s story.

The location has stayed the same but the building itself has been through a few changes, the last being from the 2001 tornado. Other changes have occurred with the pandemic causing staff shortages, Becky said.

“We will be shifting gears in July. We are short staffed right now so in July we will be changing our hours. We will be closing at 9 p.m. so that we can have enough staff,”  she said.

Steiner and her daughter are the current shift managers with other family members filling in as well.

“I don’t know if I can talk any of the other Steiner families into coming back and helping out or not. I did have one that helped us the other day cooking the kitchen. He wasn’t planning on it but he did,” Becky said.  

“We just want to say thank you all for your support in the community. If the businesses didn’t have the local support, we wouldn’t have been here for 70 years,” she said.

She defines local has much further than just the Hoisington city limits, to include anyone that passes by and stops at the Hoisington Dairy Queen.