An eighth-grade class at Col. Fred Cherry Middle School was surprised on Wednesday by staff from the Harbour View Chick-fil-A for their hard work.

Joan Bowden, a business education teacher at the school, worked with her students to teach them how to write proper business letters as part of their business etiquette unit. To make the activity more exciting, Bowden had them send the letters to businesses in the Harbour View area.

“We still need them to learn that in this new casual world, there is still etiquette,” Bowden said. “It was boring for them, and so we sent them to local businesses.”

The letters were supposed to request services and goods, and the students sent letters to Taco Bell, Wawa, Chick-fil-A and a handful of other local businesses.

While Bowden hoped for a response, she didn’t expect the response she received from Chick-fil-A.

Rather than send along some coupons and a thank you, Chick-fil-A offered to come surprise the students with chicken sandwiches, cookies, the cow and a small gift.

Some students screamed when the Chick-fil-A cow walked into the classroom, and they were more than happy to accept sandwiches, cookies and small stuffed cows as a gift.

“We are ecstatic they (Chick-fil-A) took the time out of their schedule to speak to these kids and encourage these kids,” said Coordinator of Career, Technology Education and Adult Education Andre Skinner. “This is a really special community.”

According to Bowden, it only took Chick-fil-A five days to respond to the letters.

Being surprised with some food and fun was exciting for the students, but it made them feel heard and important to know that the business responded.

“Writing the letter, I felt in charge, and I would have never normally done that,” said Ayana Wright, 13. “I feel like they care and they actually read their emails. They are a big business, but they actually read our emails.”

Responding to all of these letters in this fashion was important to the leadership at Chick-fil-A.

“We got several letters from students, and they just kept coming in,” said Chick-fil-A marketing director Paige Dewey. “Because we got so many, we felt like we had to do something great. So, we decided to surprise them. It’s so awesome to see how this brightens their day and how it encourages their studies.”