GREENVILLE – Greenville’s locally owned Dairy King gives local student athletes employment opportunities while balancing school work and playing the sports they love.
“We get kids from other schools to come here, not just Greenville kids,” said Dairy King co-owner, Dave Bush. “We get Arcanum kids, Franklin Monroe kids, Bradford kids, Tri-Village kids, so it’s nice to have that mixture of kids. They form friendships, they all get along, they have good work ethics and come from good families so it’s nice to be locally owned and have that relationship with all these kids in the community.”
“We have great kids who take on some leadership,” said Stephanie Baumgardner who along with husband John, are co-owners of DK.”We have had kids that take their leadership from the sports field into the work environment. They take lead in the shift and tell others what they need to do to help make the shift run smoothly and get our customers waited on. They learn how to deal with customers by using that information from school and the sports field.”
“As the guy that manages the workers throughout the course of the day, in the five years that we’ve been open our turnover rate is extremely low,” co-owner Dave McCartney stated. “These kids work hard on the field or on the court or whatever sport they are doing and they work hard in here. We are just thankful to have quality kids.”
Dairy King not only hires athletes but band members and more providing a well rounded group of student employees.
“I started coming in when I was about 12,” said student employee Ty Bush. “I have done this and I have worked at the city pool the past couple of years. I like the employees, I like the owners. It’s a great time and seeing familiar faces is always nice. They support our business and its nice seeing my friends coming through.”
In the five years the Baumgardner, Bush and McCartney families have owned the local business, many athletes as well as three valedictorians and three prom queens have worked at the local Dairy King.
“One of our goals when we are looking for employees is to hire student athletes, kids who are involved,” Baumgardner noted. “We know they are responsible, have a good head on their shoulders, will arrive at work on time and have some go get ‘em.”
“The student athletes are already multi-tasking with all the sports they participate in,” Bush said. “The multi-sports players that play basketball, football, baseball, softball, volleyball, golf, track, tennis – all season long it works out perfectly for DK having that commitment from these kids because they are so committed to their sports and they are also committed to Dairy King.”
“They are great kids and we’ve not yet had to fire anyone,” McCartney said. “That is a great thing to say. There are not a lot of businesses that can say they don’t have a high turnover rate in the food industry and they have not had to terminate employees.”
“We are thankful we have quality kids that apply and come to work for us,” concluded McCartney.
