Before opening his first Happy Joe's Pizza & Ice Cream Parlor, founder Joe Whitty was nearly fired from another pizza chain for sponsoring a party for a group of special needs children without first checking with his boss.
The night before opening his first restaurant in the Village of East Davenport, Happy Jo invited the local priest to bless his business and he made a promise that if he could make enoughmoney to feed his family, he would give something back to the community. As it turned out, business was so good that Joe thought maybe he shouldn't have prayed so hard. "After just a few weeks in business, people were waiting out the door," Joe said. "I wanted to be true to my word, so I shut the restaurant down one day a year to have a party for those less fortunate, and I required my franchises to do the same."
"We've been having these Special Needs parties for 37 years now, and have hosted nearly 150,000 special needs children at parties throughout our chain. I hope we never stop," Joe commented.
"As we expand into new markets, it's important to continue this tradition," said Larry Whitty, President of Happy Joe's and son of the founder.
The daughter of Happy Joe Whitty and Marketing Director for Happy Joe's, Kristel Whitty-Ersan, stated, "Again this year we are very honored that Pepsi Co., as well as many of the Quad Cities' Optimists Clubs made contributions to our parties allowing us to continue with out two-day event at the iWireless Center, serving even more children from the Quad Cities area. All of our Quad Cities locations are involved in hosting the parties and our entire team is very excited! We want to also thank the Sparkles Cheer Team from Pleasant Valley for showing us their spirit. We appreciate so much others who help make this event bigger and better each year: Burke Corp., Connie McGowan, The Midwest Corvette Club, city and state police volunteers, and the other volunteers too numberous to mention."
The Quad Cities Special Needs Children's Party will be held December 1st and 2nd at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. each day (four parties total).
An additional party will be held at the Milan Happy Joe's on December 8th at 10:00 a.m.
For more information, please contact our Marketing Department at 563-332-8811, ext. 203.
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