For years now Diane Highlands has been a fixture in the Portage community as the owner and operator of the Portage Dairy Queen. For her commitment to her community, Diane is the week’s A Portage Life in the Spotlight.
Diane has been a resident of Portage since she was in first grade. She was born and lived in Valparaiso until her family moved here to Portage. She is a graduate of Portage High School and, as a freshman, started working at the Portage Dairy Queen.
“I have done Dairy Queen pretty much my whole life,” Highlands said, “It is my life.”
After many years, Diane will be retiring from the Dairy Queen business following this season in November 2013.
“Well, I’m sorry to say, that I will be retiring next year and it is going to be a sad day,” she added, “But, I have been in it for 30 years and it has been my life but there are changes going on and I decided that maybe it was time for me to move on.”
Not to worry, Diane said the Dairy Queen will be in good hands once she leaves next year.
“There will be someone taking it over and he will do some great things to the store, but it will be a very sad day for me,” she added.
After many years of community activities including Junior Miss and numerous boards, Diane has started to scale back her commitments somewhat.
“I used to be involved in Junior Miss and there were so many committees that I was on that I just had to learn to say no because I have been in Portage all my life,” she said.
Growing up in Portage, Diane looked back on what it has been like to see her hometown community change and what has kept her in the great city of Portage.
“My family is here and I couldn’t think about moving, it is just a city that I love and really care about,” she added, “I believe this city can become an even better city, it has so much potential that it is not even funny. I really believe in this city and I can’t imagine leaving it.”
Diane’s future is still questionable. After so many years at Dairy Queen she said it will be tough to fully retire.
“I don’t know at this point. I am not a sitter, so it will be interesting to see what happens,” she said in response to a question about retiring, “After a two week vacation, I’m ready to come back; it is going to be a very, very hard change for me because I’m a workaholic.”
After so many years, Diane obviously has a favorite DQ treat and it wouldn’t be a PortageLife.com article unless we asked her.
“I like the pumpkin blizzards,” she said, “Years ago, they changed some of them, my favorite would have been the supreme which had bananas coming out of the sides, hot fudge, whipped cream and pecans; that was my favorite.”
Since DQ has been her life for so long, Diane even remember that she never wanted to bring it home because she was surrounded all day long.
“What’s funny is my kids would always be mad because I would never bring anything home,” she said, “It was like I left Dairy Queen and I just left Dairy Queen here [the store].”
Finally, Diane added her thoughts on what makes DQ special and why the Portage community needs to stop by the store.
“Well everything here is special. You can’t compare any ice cream to Dairy Queen, it is a soft serve ice cream and it is a great tasting ice cream that no one can copy,” she said, “We emphasize to our employees friendliness and we try to get the customers what they want.”
Diane feels that her job is to teach responsibility to all of her employees because for most of them, this is their first job. Some, she said, have never picked up a broom or a mop but she feels responsible to teach them responsibility and customer service.
For all she has done for her community and service to Portage history, Diane Highlands is undoubtedly A Portage Life in the Spotlight.
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