Beginning Oct. 1, participating Dairy Queen and DQ Grill & Chill® restaurants nationwide will offer “Kids Helping Kids” glow-in-the-dark bracelets at $1 each to benefit Children’s Miracle Network, a nationwide organization of hospitals that treats 17 million children a year.

Proceeds from bracelets sold will stay in each community, benefiting local Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. The bracelets also will be available for purchase through the end of the year online at www.thedqlab.com, Dairy Queen’s interactive Web site designed just for kids.

“These bracelets will help build awareness of Children’s Miracle Network throughout the country,” Patty Halvorson, director of national/local promotions for International Dairy Queen, said in a press release. “We want to bring attention to the needs of these kids. It is a cause we are very passionate about at Dairy Queen.”

Available while supplies last, the bracelets come in five glow-in-the-dark colors: red, yellow, blue, orange and green. They are embossed with the phrase “Kids Helping Kids” and the DQ® logo.

The Dairy Queen bracelets are the newest addition to the fashion craze that began about a year ago. Many children, teens and adults wear these popular bracelets to support hundreds of causes from breast cancer research to worker safety, and now Children’s Miracle Network.

Posters and other materials promote the bracelets in participating Dairy Queen and DQ Grill and Chill locations. With the purchase of each bracelet, kids receive a DQ Crew Coin which can be redeemed for games, T-shirts and other merchandise in the online DQ Lab. Each Crew Coin is worth 1,000 points in an online account.

Dairy Queen has supported Children’s Miracle Network since 1984, raising more than $55 million. Each year the network of 170 hospitals provides medical care, life-saving research and preventative education to help 17 million kids overcome diseases and injuries of every kind.

For more information visit www.dairyqueen.com, www.thedqlab.com or www.cmn.org.