Chick-fil-A gives scholarships, feeds veterans

PERKINS TWP. — Chick-fil-A served up a couple of good deeds in recent weeks. The Perkins Township restaurant awarded $2,500 scholarships to 10 high school and college-aged employees, totaling $25,000. This year's local scholarship winners are Maci Conrad, Chloe Hixson, Colby Hoover, Emily Papazian, Kennedy Crow, Grace Wimmer, Matt Toldy, Collin Ohm, Gracie Nielsen and Olivia Foreman. The Remarkable Futures scholarship program awarded $19 million to almost 7,500 recipients this year, Chick-fil-A's website states. To be eligible to apply, employees need to have a minimum cumulative 2.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale; be recommended by an operator, interim manager or executive general manager and show proof of active community service occurring within a year before applying. Since 1973, Chick-fil-A has given more than $110 million in college scholarships to at least 66,000 employees, according to the website. On average, each Chick-fil-A in the United States had three winners this year, franchise operator Dave Baumgartner said. It's the first time Sandusky Chick-fil-A employees received these scholarships. "I'm so proud of the kids," Baumgartner said. "It's a testament of the quality of kids working at the store and in the community. They're hard-working and they've earned it." The Sandusky Chick-fil-A scholarship recipients represent Huron, Edison, Perkins and Margaretta high schools in addition to Ohio State, Calvin and Indiana Wesleyan universities and other institutions, Baumgartner said. Employees who didn't win scholarships were excited for their coworkers. "When we handed out the scholarships at a team meeting, it was emotional and fun for the team and fun for me to be able to do that," Baumgartner said. "I know it meant so much to these kids. It meant a lot to the whole team that they had this many scholarships." Students can apply every year and win up to four times to earn up to $10,000 in scholarship money. Serving up free meals On April 5, Chick-fil-A provided meals to 400 residents at the Ohio Veterans Home. "We're glad to be able to do this for our veterans," Baumgartner said. "We're grateful for their sacrifice and service and it's a small way to say thank you." Not every OVH employee was available when meals were served, so Chick-fil-A gave each person a coupon for a free sandwich, Baumgartner said. Since opening in January 2020, Sandusky's Chick-fil-A location has distributed hundreds of free meals to the community through partnerships with OHgo, The Chapel, Nehemiah Partners of Sandusky, among others. Reach reporter Caitlin Nearhood at nearhood@sanduskyregister.com and follow her on Twitter @CaitlinNearhood