Where did Perk Friday come from?

Like most good things it started with a bet...

A friend of mine and I who work out together decided to do the Body For Life workout program. Being boys we decided to use a bet to give us the incentive. The bet was that whoever failed to keep the plan as faithfully as the other would treat the other to a dinner at Ruth's Chris.

If you are familiar with the Body For Life plan then you know that essentially you are good about eating and exercise six days of the week, but one day a week you get to be evil and eat anything you want, as much as you want. The plan called that day your Free Day.

Now when I started working at Sparrow I was welcomed into a regular lunch crowd who always went to McDonalds on Friday. Glad for the acceptance I would always go and enjoy the conversation and developing friendships. I decided that I would pick Friday as my Free Day and enjoy time with my new friends and whatever McDonalds had to offer. Since I considered it a perk to eat at McDonalds, I started to refer to Friday as Perk Friday.

To go along with the theme I tossed in other little perks to make the day even more enjoyable which included, among other things, donuts. I started to bring donuts in the morning for myself and a few extra that I would leave outside of the office for others to have. The donuts caught on so much that I started to bring more and sent an email out to people reminding them to enjoy Perk Friday and to have a donut. Rumors of donuts on Friday spread, the email became a newsletter, and voila, Perk Friday was born.

Perk Friday is a 100% free gift to others and is my little way of adding something special to their work week. My hope is that the idea will spread around and others will find their own little unique ways to add something special for those who are around them. If that continued to spread then the world might turn out to not be so bad after all. Kinda like the movie "Pay It Forward", this is my way to contribute to making the world a better place.

Incidently if you were wondering, I didn't lose that bet. :)