Chick-fil-A celebrates first birthday this week
Go sing “Happy Birthday” this week to the Chick-fil-A cow at a number of events that continue through Friday as the restaurant celebrates their first year in Polk County.
The Chick-fil-A of Rockmart officially celebrated their first anniversary on Friday, Sept. 14, but the party continues at the restaurant as today they hand out goodie bags to the first 50 children served in the restaurant, on Thursday continue with a canned food drive for local food banks, and more through the weekend.
Owner Zach Thomas said he was excited to get to enjoy a week of fun after he spent years trying to get Chick-fil-A to locate a restaurant in Polk County, and that continuing to see that dream fulfilled daily is one of the many things he’s thankful for in his life.
Most of all, he’s glad local customers love the restaurant’s signature chicken recipes, and keep coming back to order more.
“Thank you Polk County for an amazing first year,” Thomas said. “We are so grateful to have a business in our home community where we can continue to give back for many years to come!”
After several months of construction at their Nathan Dean Parkway location, the restaurant opened in September 2017. Prior to that, Thomas and his family operated the Chick-fil-A location at MacLand Crossing in Marietta for nine years.
He said at the time before the store’s opening he’d tried to bring Chick-fil-A to Cedartown in his original application with the company headquartered in Atlanta, and settled on Rockmart as a new home for his franchise after giving up the Marietta location.
Along with the restaurant, Thomas and his family also run the Leader Farm, which develops the talents of promising young managers in his organization through a program developed to help not only become better team members, but potential future business owners for each participant.
The restaurant locally under Thomas’ leadership participates in a lot of community activities, including the Chick-fil-A Leader Academy at both Cedartown and Rockmart High Schools, providing donations to community organizations through spirit nights, handed out scholarships to their own team members and even brought Camp Winshape to Polk County. Those are just a few examples among a lot of other programs that Thomas is involved in as well.
Thomas has also been involved in LEAD Polk and in conjunction with the Polk County Chamber of Commerce, provides Behind the Scenes tours of how Chick-fil-A operations work and how those ideas can apply to other businesses.
Thomas is a 1999 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, Thomas is a former U.S. Army officer who served in the 101st Airborne and U.S. Army Rangers, and also was founder of Ranger Coffee Company and Soldier Cafe before he was ordained a minister and went into business as a Chick-fil-A owner.
He’s also still happy about the shortened commute he now travels daily between Cedartown and Rockmart to get home to his wife Christi and their six children.
Celebrations aren’t quite done just yet for Chick-fil-A of Rockmart.
During Thursday’s canned food drive, customers are asked to bring in at least three canned goods during breakfast to receive a free Chicken Biscuit, and during lunch an additional three canned good items gets customers a free Chickfil-A sandwich.
Family night is coming up this Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. for those
who aren’t heading to football games this week. The restaurant will have face painting, arts and crafts and sack races during the evening event.
The celebration wraps up on Saturday from 3 to 4 p.m. when customers can come in and spin the Chick-fil-A wheel for a chance to win “great prizes” according to information provided by Chick-fil-A of Rockmart.
All of the events are only valid for Polk County’s Chick-fil-A as local events to celebrate their first birthday.
On Monday, Thomas handed out a copy of his book “Leader Farming” to the first 25 guests in the restaurant, and followed that up by giving out free cookies on Tuesday evening from 5 to 7 p.m.