Taylor Pardue
Elkin High School’s Robin Hooper, Kali Teague and Patty Crosswhite pose for a picture with the Chick-fil-A cow on Teacher Appreciation Day.
Taylor Pardue
Chad Tidd, owner and operator of the Chick-fil-A in Mount Airy, brought the cow and his marketing director Julie Noble to visit Elkin City Schools Tuesday. Principal Joel Hoyle and Dr. Randy Bledsoe guided them from classroom to classroom to recognize teachers for Teacher Appreciation Day.
Taylor Pardue
Camera phones sprang up everywhere as students began noticing the cow mascot standing in the Elkin High lunchroom.
Taylor Pardue
Children at the elementary school took turns hugging and posing for pictures with the cow.
Taylor Pardue
Several seniors jumped at the chance to take a photo with the cow when it visited the senior lunchroom at the high school.
Taylor Pardue
The Chick-fil-A cow draws laughs when it visited the computer lab at Elkin High school.
Chick-fil-A came to Elkin Tuesday to recognize teachers of Elkin City Schools.
Mount Airy Chick-fil-A owner and operator Chad Tidd brought the store’s cow mascot and his director of marketing Julie Nobles to Elkin May 7 to honor the staff of all three schools. The week of May 6-10 is Teacher Appreciation Week, but May 7 was the focal point of the week.
Tidd introduced himself and the cow to classes at each school, starting with the elementary. Kindergarten students ran up to the cow in a rush of laughter, with kids hugging the mascot and posing for pictures.
One little boy whispered sheepishly, “I kissed the cow.”
A little girl said, “I have cows at my house!”
Tidd presented a gift to the teachers as he entered. Staff members received a gift card for one free salad per month, for the months of May, June and July, at the Chick-fil-A in Mount Airy.
Tidd led each class he visited in a chant of “Eat more chicken,” saying the cow got excited when he heard the catch phrase.
When asked what was special about the day, several students responded, “It’s the cow’s birthday,” or similar guesses.
The cow and crew visited the Elkin High School lunch room, the computer labs, and several other classes during the tour.
Spanish students chanted “comer más pollo” - “eat more chicken,” in Spanish.
The cow and Tidd stopped in on a career management class at the end of their tour and talked about Tidd’s management style. Tidd told the students, who are in the process of learning 10 important considerations for their first job interview, that chemistry was one of the most important features in a employee.
What set apart a good candidate and a great one, Tidd said, was the way the employee meshed with the rest of the store. Tidd said he does not look at Chick-fil-A as “just a fast food restaurant,” but as a business that focuses on the relationship between the customer and worker for success.
Tidd is a graduate of Clemson University in pre-veterinary medicine. His approach for the business is to make the restaurant as hospitable as possible.
He congratulated Elkin City Schools on the same fundamentals. Tidd complimented the staff several times on the facilities as the group weaved its way throughout all three schools.
The Chick-fil-A in Mount Airy is located on Highway 601 near the intersection with Highway 52. The store has been in operation since September of 2012 with large public support.
Tidd said there were no plans to build a Chick-fil-A in Elkin. Any decision on a new store would come from Chick-fil-A itself, as Tidd rents the building and property in Mount Airy from the corporation.
Elkin is located between a Chick-fil-A in Statesville and the one in Mount Airy, as well as between Wilkesboro’s and Winston-Salem’s locations.
To contact Taylor Pardue call 336-835-1513 ext. 15, or email him at tpardue@civitasmedia.com.
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