Vet fund helps retiree open Dairy QueenBy Shelley Shelton - Arizona Daily Star
Posted : Sunday Oct 21, 2007 15:20:57 EDT
TUCSON, Ariz. — In the span of several months, Vail entrepreneur and Air Force veteran Sean Collins has gone from serving his country to serving ice cream at his own Dairy Queen.
He and his wife Tracy are chillin’ as the first Arizona recipients of a new Patriot Express loan offered by the Small Business Administration just for vets.
“We had been planning this for quite a while,” he said at his new ice cream eatery recently, seated comfortably in what is probably the largest lobby you’ll ever see in a Dairy Queen.
Collins was in the Air Force for almost 22 years, stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base from 1999 until he retired as a senior noncommissioned officer in 2003.
Tracy Collins, a real estate agent, worked her first job at a Dairy Queen during high school and college, and the couple loved the idea of giving other young people in their fast-growing area a shot at their first jobs as well, Sean said.
Last spring they left their four children — two teens and two preschoolers — in the care of family and friends for three weeks while they attended Dairy Queen school in Minneapolis.
rest of article at:
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_dairyqueen_071021/uhc comment: Nicholson sure liked the program --> http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1346