FOUNTAIN, Colo. – Fountain’s first Chick-fil-A^® restaurant will open June 18, bringing 80 new jobs, the chance for 100 adults to win free Chick-fil-A meals for a year and the opportunity for community members to donate books that will benefit Ft. Carson Preschool.

After 11 years and nearly $24 million in free food given away, Chick-fil-A’s “First 100” celebration continues to be the chain’s signature grand opening event which transforms the restaurant parking lot into a 24-hour community friendly party as the crowd awaits the opening.

The new stand-alone restaurant at 7925 Fountain Mesa Road will host the next First 100 event that will award more than $32,000 in free food. A digital offer card loaded with a one-year supply of free Chick-fil-A Meals (52 meals with each consisting of a Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich, medium Waffle Potato Fries™ and a medium drink) will be given to each of the first 100 eligible adults, ages 18 and older with identification, in line when the doors open about 6 a.m. on Thursday, June 18. If more than 100 people are onsite when the line officially opens at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, June 17, then all 100 spots will be determined by a drawing held that morning with those selected needing to camp out for 24 hours to secure their spot.

This community event is open to guests who live in specific zip codes surrounding the restaurant. Interested participants may obtain a complete listing of zip codes and rules at www.chick-fil-a.com/locations/first-100.

Chick-fil-A believes in partnering with organizations that enrich education, literacy and youth. In that spirit, Chick-fil-A at Fountain Operator Ryan Saxby is collecting new children’s books to benefit Ft. Carson Preschool on Wednesday, June 17, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Thursday, June 18, during normal business hours. The books collected during the grand opening celebration will be placed in a nearly three-foot Book House to serve as a free library exchange – allowing anyone to take a book after replacing it with one of their own. The Book House, created from old and thrown out wood, is one of several community programs and opportunities being made possible through the support of the Chick-fil-A Foundation (www.chick-fil-afoundation.org).

The opening of the Fountain Chick-fil-A restaurant will create 80 new jobs. Featuring the chain’s newest interior and kitchen design, the new location can seat 136 in the dining room with additional outside patio seating. The restaurant includes dual drive-thru ordering lanes to expand the chain’s award-winning drive-thru service enabling motorists to place their orders at separate screens and then merge into a single lane to pay for and pick up their orders. With a majority of Chick-fil-A customers choosing to drive thru, the ability for two drivers to simultaneously order will mean quicker service.

Customers will be able to stay connected through the restaurant’s free Wi-Fi, and parents will appreciate the indoor playground that includes an interactive section for toddlers. The restaurant is open Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., serving a full breakfast menu until 10:30 a.m. Like all Chick-fil-A restaurants, it will be closed on Sunday.

The new Fountain Chick-fil-A is the second of three restaurants the chain is opening in the state this year, with plans to open a restaurant in Stapleton tentatively in late fall. The first Chick-fil-A restaurant opened in Colorado in 1978 inside the Town Center at Aurora. The chain now operates 41 restaurants in the state.

The Colorado openings are part of 88 new restaurants the chain plans to open in 2015 — creating more than 7,000 new jobs.

Veteran owner/Operator Saxby began his Chick-fil-A career in high school. He went on to attend the University of Alabama where he majored in business and fulfilled his dream of owning a Chick-fil-A restaurant five years later at the University Mall location in Tuscaloosa, Ala. After serving five years as an Operator in the South, he and his wife, Amy, whom he met while working at Chick-fil-A, are heading west and excited to settle down and serve the Fountain community with their two children.

“Personalized customer service and freshly prepared food have been the hallmarks of Chick-fil-A since the day Truett Cathy opened his first restaurant,” said Saxby.

Perfecting a recipe his mother used in her Atlanta boarding house, Cathy first served his boneless breast-of-chicken sandwich, pressured cooked and served on a buttered bun with two crucial pickles, at his Dwarf Grill restaurant which opened in 1946 in Hapeville, Ga. It was the signature menu item when the first Chick-fil-A restaurant opened in 1967 inside an Atlanta mall. Though joined by many other menu options over the years, the Chick-fil-A sandwich remains the centerpiece of the menu as the chain has grown to 1,918 restaurants in 42 states and Washington D.C.

For more information on the Fountain Chick-fil-A restaurant, visit www.chick-fil-a.com/fountain or find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ChickfilAatFountain.