Chick-fil-A

By: Emily Jackson

Troy students were among the crowd awaiting the grand opening of Troy’s first stand-alone Chick-fil-A restaurant Jan. 24, to get the chance to eat more chicken, free, for a year.

Tents and lawn chairs lined the parking lot of Chick-fil-A  while participants of all ages mingled.

The first 100 participants, of 18 years or older, will receive 52 Chick-fil-A coupons equivalent to $28,000 in free food if they are willing to wait 24 hours in advance of the grand opening.

Of those in line, ATO brothers, Trevor Cook and Brandon Stoudenmier were ready to bare the cold and the crowds in order to get their share of the new franchise’s freebies.

Their camp out began at 5 a.m. and is planned to end at 6 a.m. the following morning.

Trevor Cook a Junior nursing major from Panama City, Fl. gave some insight into what the crowds looked at 9:12 a.m. the morning before the grand opening.

“I’m kind of surprised that there’s actually more Florida State University and University of Florida students here then Troy students,” Cook said. “It’s kind of Sad.”

The bothers explained that other Troy University students had not had their good fortune in planning for the event.

“Trevor and I lucked up and were able to situate our class schedule to where we could to come out today and camp out for 24 hours,” said Brandon Stoudenmier a senior biology major from Montgomery.

Still, there was a handful of Troy students that did attend the event and even more students who have been employed by the new restaurant.

Owner of the new Chick-fil-A Jeff Koch said that a large part of their team are either currently enrolled at Troy University or have taken a semester off. Koch, himself, is also a Trojan.

“My wife and I met here at Troy state,”said Koch. “We were both students here from 1983-1987. My wife was in Sound of the South Band and I was in air force ROCT and we are Trojans through and through.”

Koch, said that he has been encouraged by the community’s reaction to the new restaurant.

“We are really excited to be in Troy,” Koch said. “The community has really embraced Chick-fil-A coming here and we are just really thrilled to get to chance to serve the community.

In Chick-Fil-A’s ‘First 100 Celebration’ program, has been put on at more than 680 grand openings nation-wide according to an official Chick-Fil-A press release. To find out more about the official rules of the ‘First 100 Celebration’ program visit: www.chick-fil-a.com/location/First-100.