Voters who recycle get to Eat Mor Chikin

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Recycling signs for food at Chick Fil A

By KATIE SEMINARA

Chick-fil-A tried to make sure political yard signs didn’t end up in a ditch.

BOARDMAN — Election signs that wouldn’t have shared the same yard space during the presidential race were tightly squeezed in at Chick-fil-A awaiting recycling.

During a post-Election Day special, customers were encouraged to trade in their political yard signs for a free sandwich at the Boardman location on U.S. Route 224.

“Four years ago we did the same promotion,” said store manager Shelly LaBerto.

But signs collected four years ago became garbage, whereas this year the signs will be passed along to the Mahoning County Green Team for recycling.

“It’s great that we can have a fun promotion and do something for the environment,” she said.

LaBerto projected that about 1,400 signs would have been collected by the end of Wednesday.

By 4 p.m. more than 500 signs had already been exchanged for a signature sandwich and the extra employees brought in for the day were having difficulty fitting behind the counter.

Customer Lee Guy, 72, of Boardman added another one to the pile when he brought in his Obama-Biden sign.

“I think it’s really nice,” he said of the special promotion.

“It helps out a lot of people and they serve good food,” said Guy.

Though Guy is an Obama supporter, he handed in his only 2008 election sign for a sandwich.

“You’ll probably pay $20 for one of those signs on eBay one day,” Guy said, joking that maybe he should have held on to his a little longer.

A.J. Perrotta, 17, of Struthers also walked through the doors of Chick-fil-A with an Obama sign in hand, but he still had another one at home.

“It’s historical,” he said of the election and the reason for keeping at least one Obama sign.

Perrotta went to the restaurant with fellow Obama supporter Rachel Elias, and two other friends who would have liked McCain to be the winner of Tuesday’s election.

“I was thrilled to get rid of an Obama sign, because I’m upset with the outcome of the election,” said Samantha Rohrman who was sitting with Perrotta.

Though the group of four 17-year-olds were unable to vote, many debates ensued in school, and continued at Chick-fil-A.

“Free sandwiches bring us together,” said Perrotta.

If you didn’t have the chance to trade your sign for a chicken sandwich, the Mahoning County Green Team is collecting political yard signs to be recycled.

Any standard plastic or paperboard sign with metal posts can be stacked neatly against the fence in the rear parking lot of Mahoning County’s South Side Annex, 2801 Market St., Youngstown.

Large wooden or metal signs cannot be recycled.

For more information call (330) 740-2060.